Eating Dogs and Worse

I am aware that people in China like to eat pretty much anything that crawls, flies, swims, floats or otherwise moves around.

Due to my personal affinity for canine creatures, I would never dine on a member of that species.  I would consider eating dog meat to be similar to eating another person.  That is my philosophy.

One of the teachers at the school where I work someone got into a conversation with me about eating dogs.  He said that he likes to eat dogs.  He said they are so delicious that he cannot and will not stop eating dogs in the future.  

I was not reserved in my condemnation for dog eating.  I explained that dogs have a unique relationship to humans that is not shared by any other type of animal, and that it is like eating an animal that is as smart as a small child.

I also said that I personally do not care if he eats dog or not.  That is his right to do that if he wants.  I don't think less of him.  It is a cultural difference.  I generally am not critical of the many foreign things I encounter.

The following week, we were talking and he said that other teachers thought I would not want to talk to  him.  He said that because I don't eat dogs, I would not want to talk to him.  I kind of think that my difference of opinion about dog meat was kind of insulting to him.  I will make sure to impress upon him that it does not.  

He asked me if I would eat a hedgehog, a mouse, and a variety of other critters.  I mentioned that I am not opposed to eating most things, but probably would not put hedgehog high on my list.

Then, he said that some people in China eat the placenta.  I said of what animal.  He said humans.

This was a gross out moment.  But it only got worse.

I started to ask all manner of questions, after which, it became clear, that he actually meant human fetuses.

My friend has not done this, and made it clear that he does not know anyone who has done this.  When he worked in another city, one of his co-workers mentioned that he knew of rich people who would go to dine on aborted human fetuses.

I was pretty shocked.  I was being told that there are people in China who purchase, steal or take human fetuses from hospitals and eat them.

He and I sat down, and he showed me photographs online of a man eating what looked like a human fetus.

I did my research.  It is true.

Apparently, back in 1995, there was a news story in Hong Kong about abortion doctors who routinely ate human fetuses for health reasons.

In the past year, the South Korean government has confiscated thousands of tablets that contain powdered human fetuses.

Apparently, traffickers buy the fetuses from hospitals.  They cost between $10 to $20.

The cadavers are dried to a powder and put into tablets.  They are also boiled in soups and consumed by wealthy people.

It is unclear how widespread this is.  I was shown a picture of two policemen with about 40 small bundles that were human fetuses.

It is not legal to do this.

China has a very spooky history.  There have been many famines that range back over recorded history.  Back about a thousand years ago, there were arab writers who described human body parts being sold in markets in China.

Over the past 100 years, there have been periods of very severe famine, when millions of people starved to death.  It is fairly certain that human cannibalism took place during these times.

In the past, Chinese warriors would sometimes eat the heart or liver of their enemies.  There are also accounts of ancient soldiers making a feast of their slain enemies.  The soldiers lingered on the battlefield until the stench of rotting flesh made them leave.

Back in January of this year, a man in Yunnan province was executed after he was found guilty of murdering at least 11 people and eating them.  He sold the extra meat as ostrich meat at the local market.  In his home were bags full of human bones and bottles of alcohol that contained "dozens" of human eyeballs.  He used his dogs to dispose of remains.

Another teacher overheard our talk about the fetuses.  She feigned retching, and said that it happens down in South China, but not in the north.  My friend told me, that he believes that this thing happens in all large cities.

There is a story, and pictures, about a village in South China where they abduct strangers and eat them. There are pictures that I am pretty sure are genuine.