啊！狗肉，北京奥林匹克关你什么啦？.....Dog Meat Off the Menu During Beijing Olympics

七月十一日，Msnbc.com报导北京在奥林匹克期间，所有指定餐馆禁止出售狗肉。北京旅游官员也奉劝其他餐馆务必劝阻顾客点叫和狗肉有关的菜式。

有人就认为这是中国为了讨好西方和对中国文化没有信心的一种表现。

在西方，吃狗肉一般上是社会禁忌。其实，西方也有吃狗肉的历史。法国人在饥荒时就吃狗肉。德国人在十八世纪开始吃狗肉，直到1986年才被禁止。在瑞士，人们吃狗香肠，还有人认为狗香肠是其中最健康的。

美国人不吃狗肉，而且吃狗和宠物的肉是社会的禁忌。

可能中国人吃狗肉的历史最久。据说从新石器时代开始中国人就食用狗肉。这种文化在古代东亚被广泛传播。佛教传到日本以前，日本人也吃狗肉。

中国少数民族布依族对吃狗肉有一个传说：古代有一个低洼的地方，在插完秧之后许多人突然瘫痪。巫师占卜后说必须找一只狗来祭祀祈禳方可安宁。祭祀之后杀狗煮肉，每人一碗狗肉汤，果然病全好了。从此布依族才吃起狗肉来。而在这之前布依族不吃狗肉是因为传说狗从天上取来谷种，狗对人有恩，受到尊重。

《史记。越王勾践世家》记载，范蠡从齐国回来后给大夫文种留下一封书信说，鸟没有了，人们就把良弓藏起来，而兔子打完了，主人常常把猎狗杀来吃。越王脖子长，有一张鸟嘴，这种人只能与你共患难，而不会与你共欢乐的，趁早一走了之罢。这就是今天我们知道的“兔死狗烹”成语的来历。

《孟子。梁惠王上》说：“鸡豚狗彘之畜，无失其时，七十者可以食肉矣。”就是说，鸡猪狗这类的牲畜，不要错过它们繁殖的季节，这样七十岁的人就可以有肉吃了。

战国时侠客聂政，汉高祖刘邦的心腹樊哙，勇刺秦皇的荆轲和其好友高渐离，据说都曾经以杀狗为生的。

谈了这么多，并不是说我喜欢吃狗肉。相反，狗肉当前，可能还真的吃不下。只是说，人向来有吃动物的习惯，吃不吃某种动物的肉，和个人及某个族群的传统，喜好，过去经验，价值观念，宗教信仰，等等有关。硬说吃某种动物的肉是不文明的举动，这本身可能就是一种不可取的沙文主义吧。

Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reported on 11 Jul 2008 that dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs.

Some people say that the ban on sale of dog meat during the Olympics is mainly to please the West as the consumption of dog meat is generally viewed as taboo in Western culture, and in the US, it is considered a social taboo to eat dogs or other animals traditionally considered to be pets or companion animals.

It is believed that dog meat has been a source of food in parts of China from at least the time of Confucius, and possibly even before.

Wikipedia: "In France, dogs were widely eaten during famines. Dog meat has been eaten in every major German crisis at least since the time of Frederick the Great, and is commonly referred to as "blockade mutton". Since 1986 dog meat is prohibited in Germany. Dog sausage and smoked dog jerky remains a staple in the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen and Appenzell, where one farmer was quoted in a regional weekly newspaper as saying that 'meat from dogs is the healthiest of all. It has shorter fibres than cow meat, has no hormones like veal, no antibiotics like pork.'"

However, this is not the first time that the dog meat is banned during Olympics. I found the following in Wikipedia:

"During the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea's capital city, the South Korean government asked its citizens not to consume dog meat to avoid bad publicity during the games. The controversy surfaced again in 2001 during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The organizer of the games, under pressure from animal rights groups such as PETA, demanded that the Korean government re-address the issue."