China's First Man In Space Reveals Astronauts Ate Dog Meat To Keep Up Their Strength

DailyMail (UK) ^ | May 12th 2010 | ALLAN HALL

[Steelfish]

China's First Man In Space Reveals Astronauts Ate Dog Meat To Keep Up Their Strength By ALLAN HALL 13th May 2010

China's first man in space has revealed that the menu on his spacecraft included dog meat - to keep the astronaut's strength up. Yang Liwei, who commanded the Shenzhou Five mission in 2003, revealed canine menu samples that were on-board his craft along with chicken and fish. In his autobiography ‘The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth’ he said: 'Many of my friends are curious about what we eat in space and think that the astronauts must have some expensive delicacies, like shark's fin or abalone.

'Actually we ate quite normal food, there is no need to keep it a secret,' he added, listing chicken, steamed fish and dog meat from Huajiang county in Guangdong. Chinese nutritional experts recommend dog meat, especially in winter months. Finding dog meat, bones and even skulls - they are boiled to make broth - in Chinese supermarkets, particularly in the north of the country, is by no means unusual. Germans and Swiss were recently horrified to find that St. Bernard dogs - traditionally associated with rescuing avalanche victims in the Alpine regions of both countries - are now bred in China on special farms for their flesh.

The dogmeat menu was still in use last year, when Chinese astronauts conducted their first ever spacewalk. If China has its way, it will be served when the country accomplishes its goal of a man-on-the-moon in 2030. Animal rights campaigners in China were horrified at the revelations.

[tet68]

Moondoggie!

[ElkGroveDan]

Ironic. I wonder if he cut it with a stone knife.

[Greg123456]

Customer: "You sure this is beef in the chow mein?"

Waiter: "It must be dog meat, our cat meat tastes like chicken."

[PeteCat]

What’s wrong with eatin’ dogs?

[Slyfox]

[El Sordo]

Imagine what a good number of Hindus think of our flagrant consumption of cows.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

“Dog is a fine meal”, The Patriot

[James C. Bennett]

 

Serving beef at Ayodhya


24 Aug 2003, 0000 hrs IST,SWAMINOMICS/ 

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR


 

Although the BJP and Congress Party both seem keen on banning cow slaughter throughout India, it looks as though dissent from other parties has blocked the move for the time being. Some critics protest that cow worship is a strictly Hindu idea that must not be imposed on others in a secular state. I agree. 

But I go further. I hold that cow slaughter and beef eating are proven Hindu traditions of old. This has been recorded by any number of scholars of the Vedas and epics. Let me give as an example Nirad Chaudhuri's passages from The Continent of Circe. 

Vedic literature shows great love for and pride in cattle, as is to be expected of a pastoral people. Love of cows in the Vedas goes with "every possible economic use of cattle, including, of course, their slaughter for food". The Vedic spirit continues into the age when epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata were written. 

Chaudhuri notes that a debate had already begun between those who opposed and those who defended cow slaughter. The two ideas co-existed, very much like the debate today about vegetarianism. The Mahabharata mentions, "without thinking it necessary to add any excuse, that a very hospitable king used to have 20,100 cattle slaughtered every day for his guests." On the other hand, another story tells of a king who has slaughtered a cow to entertain a sage, an act that is criticised as sinful by another sage. 

Such differences of view are a key characteristic of Hinduism. It has never been a rigid, Semitic-style religion with a chief pre-late laying down one single interpretation of holy texts. From ancient times some Hindus opposed cow slaughter, but many others regarded it as not merely permissible but obligatory to show honour to guests. 

By the time the Dharma Shastras were penned, beef consumption had "ceased or virtually ceased". Nevertheless, the play Uttara-Rama-Charitra, one of the most celebrated versions of the Ramayana written by Bhavabhuti in the 8th century AD, has the following dialogue between two hermit boys at Ayodhya, Saudahataki and Dandayana. 

S: What is the name of the guest who has arrived today with a big train of women? 

D: Stop joking. It is no less a person than the revered Vasishta himself. 

S: Is it Vasishta, eh? 

D: Who else? 

S: I thought it was a tiger or a wolf. For, as soon as he came, he crunched up our poor tawny heifer. 

D: It is written that meat should be given along with curds and honey. So every host offers a heifer, a big bull, or a goat to a learned Brahmin who comes as a guest. This is laid down in sacred law. 

Today, with the Hindutva bri-gade in full cry, such a dialogue in a modern play would probably cause a riot and be banned. 

Yet, this was uncontroversial in its time. Clearly, the notion that the cow is sacred is merely a sectional Hindu view. It is by no means traditional Hinduism or essential Hinduism. If anything, it is a recent reformist Hinduism. I have no objection to reformers, but I object vociferously when they pretend to speak for all Hindus, or for essential Hinduism. 

Some Vishwa Hindu Parishad types say that the cow gives milk which is essential for rearing all of us, so the cow is our mother, and hence deserves to be protected from slaughter. Chaudhuri remarks caustically that the "relationship is expressed not in terms of economics or animal husbandry... but as a matter of ethics, as if one was speaking of a man's relationship with his wet nurse." 

On this supposition, the buffalo is an even greater mother of Hindus than the cow, as buffaloes in north India provide more milk than cows. But nobody worships the poor buffalo. Indeed, the buffalo is ceremonially sacrificed as part of Hindu worship in parts of eastern India. 

In Vedic times, neither untouchables nor tribals were regarded as Hindus. Even when the first census was enumerated in the 19th century, dalits and tribals were not counted as Hindus. 

But such is the power of modern upper caste Hindu imperialism that it now claims as its own these two groups whom it cruelly reviled and oppressed through the ages. Dalits and tribals have always eaten beef. 

Yet, the VHP brigade (and its camp-followers in the Congress) claim unhesitatingly that Hindus do not eat beef. A ban on cow slaughter would be an imposition on hundreds of millions of dalits and tribals, no less than on non-Hindus. 

I have long opposed a ban on cow slaughter as a secular liberal. But in the light of Bhavabhuti's narrative, I also oppose the ban as a beef-eating Hindu. I am following in the footsteps of Vasishta, no less.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/144132.cms

[guitarplayer1953]

Cat meat taste like rabbit.

[johnny reb]

It’s a dog eat dog orbit ain’t it?

[mlocher]

Astronauts Ate Dog Meat To Keep Up Their Strength

I guess I got the saying wrong. I thought it was, "Eat sh!t and bark at the moon."

[mountainbunny]

Meh. Some people are far too sensitive about this issue.

I hunt. If some people had their way, hunters would never kill another animal. Deers have such pretty eyes, after all. PETA wants us to think of fish as “sea kittens” because they sound too cute to eat.

Our family eats meat. If some people had their way, meat eaters would never take another bite.

I’m not about to say that my choice of dinner is morally better than that of anyone else.

Either we have the right to hunt and eat animals or we don’t. If we do, so do the Chinese. If they don’t, we don’t either.

I refuse to judge anyone based on what they eat unless they did something unethical to get it.

[James C. Bennett]

Completely agree.

I also think horse slaughter should not be banned, like it is in many places here.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Dog, cat, horse - they all taste good when properly prepared!

[ThomasSawyer]

"In his autobiography ‘The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth’..."

I thought I heard something about a follow up book that would be coming out called "101 Ways to Wok Your Dog in Zero Gravity"? Gee, I hope it's out in time for Christmas.

[mountainbunny]

I think horse slaughter should be allowed to continue, as well.

There have been some heartbreaking cases locally of horses found dead or dying on public and private land.

The economy is bad, horses are expensive to keep and feed, making many of them a liability in this economy. The person who owns the land can be held responsible for the burial or the animal, so it sometimes makes economic sense for the owner to abandon his/her horses elsewhere.

How is abandoning starving animals preferable to allowing them to be sold for meat, then killed quickly and humanly?

The law of unintended consequences strikes again.

[matthew fuller]

[TheThinker]

If my dog gets in my garbage again, I’m going to tell him he’s going to be a Chinese astronaut snack.

[rdl6989]

It tastes like kung pao chicken.