However, often the critics find it unacceptable that dogs are being caged, killed and eaten at all.

Such complaints are justified when they come from vegans who are equally upset about the conditions of pigs and cows in western industrial farms.

But they are simply hypocritical when they come from carnivores who happily eat intensively reared pigs, or even from vegetarians whose milk and cheese comes from cattle kept in such poor conditions that large swathes of the herds are lame.

However, those who say any criticism at all is a kind of moral imperialism are also guilty of lazy thinking. Almost everyone believes that respect for difference has its limits.

I know of no one who in the name of cultural diversity defends the barbaric practices of ISIS, the chillingly efficient holocaust perpetuated by the Third Reich, or the execution of homosexuals and atheists in some Islamic countries.