“It's an old American urban legend that immigrants are to blame for pet eating,” reads a headline in Forbes' Sunday edition. We've also heard that the latest stories about Haitians eating cats and dogs are all due to “racism.” (It's not made clear that the accusation itself is partly due to nativism.) But amid the cute cat memes, political pleas, and ad hominem attacks, something's missing: intelligent conversation. And here it is.
Many cultures have dogs and cats on the menu, so is it really that surprising that at least some immigrants from those cultures continued this practice, at least for a while?
In fact, mainstream media reports from California, Germany and elsewhere have confirmed that immigrants are eating dogs and cats, respectively.
Moreover, animal sacrifice is a major problem in places like New York City. In other words, issues involving immigrants and animals do exist, whether they are localized or widespread.
I'm done with the mousetrap business.
Before we tackle other issues, let's discuss a current allegation: pet eating in Springfield, Ohio. Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, have said that some residents of the Buckeye State have complained that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating their pets. The media claims this is “unfounded.” But what are the facts?
Inspired by a video of a cat being grilled in an Ohio city, journalist Christopher Rufo investigated. He found the man who filmed the video, who “wanted to remain anonymous but confirmed the time, location and authenticity of the footage,” the reporter says. “He told me that he noticed something unusual last summer when he went to pick up his son,” Rufo continues. “'That's an African guy who lives right next door to my child's mother,' he said. 'The African guy next door was grilling that cat.'” (video below).
Rufo acknowledges other aspects of the story, such as the fact that an African immigrant neighbor of the family who cooked cats said that “the father would find meat in the neighborhood.” (It's also doubtful she meant that the father found wandering bulls or hunted deer in the urban area.)
To be clear, this didn't happen in Springfield, but in Dayton, the nearest major city. Moreover, this doesn't prove that immigrant pet consumption is a widespread phenomenon. But as Rufo points out, it “subverts the commonly held view propagated by the mainstream media and their 'fact-checkers,' who insist that this never happened and that to suggest otherwise is an expression of racism.” (Note: the man who filmed the video is black.)
Stories from the land of “it never happened”
So this refutes the common narrative. Again,
“'What's wrong with eating cats?'” read a Daily Mail headline in 2014. “A Vietnamese man living in Germany admits to killing and barbecuing his neighbor's pets but doesn't understand what's wrong with them.”
Additionally, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1989 that “Two Cambodian Refugees Face Trial for Killing a Dog for Meal. Sokeng Chea, 32, and Seng Ou, 33, decided to eat a 4-month-old German shepherd puppy that a coworker had given to them as a pet,” the paper said.
Again, for those who scoff at these old headlines, the above doesn't prove that pet consumption is widespread in the U.S., it just proves that the mainstream media is spreading misinformation by claiming it's complete urban myth.
Furthermore, what are the chances that the incidents we are hearing about are the only ones that actually happened?
Culture speaks volumes
While disturbing to the average Westerner, for the more sophisticated among us, these stories come as no surprise. After all, eating cats and dogs is common in some countries (see relevant World Population Review data here). Consider the following video about cat consumption in Vietnam:
AFP news also features a Vietnamese restaurant that serves cat meat “to more than 100 customers” every day. AFP reports that the cats are “drowned,” and quotes the restaurant manager as saying, “We eat dog meat at the end of the lunar month, but we eat cat meat at the beginning,” he said. He explained that some people believe that eating cat meat at the beginning of the lunar month “brings good luck.”
Below is a video of dog meat being devoured in Vietnam, with the narrator saying that it's estimated that “around 5 million dogs are consumed in Vietnam each year.”
But some immigrants (and non-immigrants) are making sacrifices for our country, at least in our country: “Animal sacrifices are on the rise in Queens, with chickens and pigs tortured in 'twisted' rituals.” This is a quote from a New York Post article published just nine days ago. The article also said that a dog's body had been found, with its “neck broken.”
What does “diversity” actually mean?
But back to the Haitian newcomers: the current controversy is about eating pets, but what about animal sacrifice? Could this be the reason for the disappearance of pets in Ohio? Note that National Geographic reported in 2004 that “it is commonly believed that Haitians are 70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant and 100 percent Voodoo.” National Geographic also notes that animal sacrifice is sometimes part of Voodoo rituals.
The point is that “diversity” as it is often referred to is related to “difference”, but diversity advocates rebel against the suggestion that these differences could even be slightly disadvantageous – apparently this cannot be the case (unless it is Western cultural diversity).
Furthermore, can you identify any group of people who reach our country’s shores and completely abandon their culture, especially their religion?
That's not to say there aren't positive aspects to other cultures' stomach-turning (by Western standards) cuisine. Think of all the YouTube videos that vividly depict Far Eastern villagers cooking and eating rats. (If your diet is failing, this video should help curb your appetite.) The point is, if we had enough of these people in New York, we could make a significant dent in the rat problem. And then, finally, we could truly say: “They're doing the jobs Americans won't do!”
What the media won't do
But what the media doesn't do is their job. President Trump certainly has a tendency to exaggerate. And yet, when he boldly stated during a presidential debate that some immigrants (illegal immigrants) eat pets, he didn't specify the magnitude of the problem. But most media outlets completely rejected Trump's hyperbole. But the facts I've presented are ones that mainstream reporters could easily find. That is, if they were more interested in the truth than in the propaganda of a particular major party.
There is an irony here, too: the media's behavior can be described in one word as cat-like.
