A Maryland woman recently posted a video to Facebook claiming that she had found a dog paw in her order of pork spare ribs from a Chinese restaurant. She wrote, “I googled a dead dog paw and took a pic of what they delivered to me . . . and tell me if I’m wrong but they look exactly the same.”

The restaurant responded to the woman’s claims with a social media post of its own. It wrote that her accusation was “NOT TRUE!!!!” and included a document from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which stated that “there is no evidence of any dog meat in this facility.”

The restaurant said, “The video posted showed a piece of cartilage at the end of the ribs, which is not out of the ordinary, as cartilage exists alongside the bones, (and in this case the ribs) of meats.” In light of this explanation, the woman retracted her complaint.

Regardless of whether those body parts came from a pig or a dog, what’s the difference? If cartilage and bones are enough to disgust people when they believe the parts belong to a dog, why do some folks not bat an eye when they’re told that the ribs belong to a pig or a cow?

More than 10 million dogs are killed for meat every year in China. But while many of us are quick (and right) to condemn the cruel killing of dogs for food, shouldn’t we also be bothered by the cruel killing of billions of cows, chickens, and pigs every year in this country? Who wouldn’t be horrified that cows are crammed into filthy feedlots and often butchered while conscious? Or that female pigs spend their lives confined to cramped metal crates and are repeatedly inseminated and forced to bear babies who will be torn away from them? And considering that pigs’ and chickens’ cognitive abilities are comparable to those of dogs, how does it make sense that we call one “friend” and the others “dinner”?

As PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said, “When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife.”

What You Can Do

By pledging to go vegan, you can save animals every day by leaving them off your plate.