Refugees Kill Pet for Food

I read your article on the two Cambodian refugees who killed the puppy with a mixed sense of anger, frustration, and disgust.

While I am prepared to admit that a measured portion of my disgust comes from the fact that this type of behavior is so foreign to our modern Occidental culture, I can find no mitigating circumstances with which to blunt my anger and frustration. I am angry that the powers that be among my fellow Americans, both natural and naturalized, apparently cannot find it in their hearts to demand among our residents from foreign lands whose cultures may clash with ours that they conform within the constraints of certain national social patterns of behavior.

It seems to me that in all likelihood the two men in question knew full well that eating dogs in America is repugnant on its face in the eyes of their new neighbors and should not have been undertaken. What really hurts me more deeply, however, are the facts that this puppy was apparently given to them as a pet and that they now live in a land where meat grown for consumption is both cheap and plentiful.

It occurs to me that the real question raised by this article is not whether or not a dog is more of a pet than a goose, or a tame deer is more inviolable that one running in the wild, rather it is the question of whether or not persons wishing to live in (or merely visit for that matter) the United States should be made more cognizant of the recognized social norms of our land, just as they are made to learn the basic functioning of our government.

Please understand that in no way am I, being foreign born myself, suggesting that everyone living in this wonderful country look or act the same, and I fully recognize that one of the strengths of this country is in its diversity. However, I strongly feel that as persons who have “crossed over” we have the right to demand, and as persons who wish to “cross over” they have the obligation to respond to a demand for adherence to basic existing social norms such as not slaughtering and eating a pet puppy.

It’s way past time for our legislators to both place a law on the books outlawing the killing of domesticated animals for the purpose of consumption and to provide for stiff penalties for the violation of same.

MICHELE PARMITER

Malibu