‘Cultural Differences’ and Food

The editorial gave me an entirely new viewpoint that I had not considered before. Instead of being incensed that these two men would club and hack a puppy to death for their dinner, I should have taken a more understanding attitude. Maybe I should have paid a neighborly visit to their home (and they are my neighbors, the incident happened a short two blocks from where I have owned my home for the last 20 years). I could have taken them a pot roast of beef and explained that perhaps in future they should stick to a more acceptable fare, that in this country we frown on eating our dogs.

Perhaps this would have had a more positive effect in the Cambodian community. It just probably had never occurred to them that killing dogs for food was not acceptable in our culture. Maybe we could arrange to show them some old Lassie movies, somehow get through to them that we hold our dogs in high esteem, we do not eat them.

All of the above is baloney, and you know it as well as I do. There is only one way to stop these people from killing our dogs and cats to eat, and that is to put some laws on the books, with teeth in them, and take them to court every time they are caught, so to avoid the hassle they will start buying their meat down at the market like the rest of us and leave our pets alone.

ELSIE M. MASON

Long Beach