The cruelty of this trade — the fact that dogs are smashed into cages; suffocated; “skinned alive, strung up and beaten,” according to a CNN report — is what should shock and sadden you. The fact that people are eating dog meat? That shouldn’t. Unless you’re vegetarian or vegan — I’m not, by the way, although I do try to eat relatively little meat — you don’t have any moral high ground to stand on. Here in the United States, a place with an unhealthy and ridiculously hipster bacon obsession (witness: bacon donuts, bacon pie, bacon in bloody marys), eating dog could be seen as a reasonable alternative to pig, which is another highly intelligent animal, capable of being a companion to the likes of George Clooney.

The United States euthanizes 1.2 million dogs per year, according to the ASPCA.

Would eating them be so different?

It actually could be seen as helpful.