Taiwan passed a law that prohibits eating dog and cat meat, according to the Central News Agency there. The transition codifies a cultural transition that has been underway for decades as Taiwan has moved from a place where dog meat was “regularly consumed” to a place where dogs and cats are more regularly domesticated pets. The new law — an amendment to the existing Animal Protection Act — bans the “slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption.”
Violators will incur a fine and a public shaming, since their names and photos could be published in the news. Other Asian nations are experiencing similar transitions. Though parts of China still celebrate the consumption of dogs with festivals, pet ownership in China is “booming” according to Forbes. The transition from food to pets is taking a very long time in Asia. One study mines DNA evidence to reveal that the domestication of pets began in Central Asia — “dogs were the first domesticated species, originating at least 15,000 years ago from Eurasian gray wolves.”
