I love dogs, and yes, I find it horrifying that other cultures eat them. However, I also understand that for other cultures, it is horrifying to see us eat beef or pork.

Its not hypocritical, that is just awareness and empathy. Western cultures have specific values, the paraphrasing of which can include

• dont eat your pets

• dogs are pets

So if you're a westerner, then its not hypocritical for you to acknowledge that other cultures might find what we do as horrifying when you understand why. We can be horrified by each other, but its the reasons why we are horrified that determines if we are being a hypocrite or not.

For example. Another culture might say...

• cows are sacred

• dont eat sacred things

Now if we as westerners also believed that we should not eat sacred thing, but did not find cows sacred, we would not be hypocrites if we ate cows. As we do not hold cows sacred. However if we said that turnips are sacred, but still ate them, then we would be hypocrites.

But if you enjoy eating a good steak, then it is hypocritical to criticize others for eating what they consider is "just meat".

So humans are also made of meat. But we don't eat them. Are we hypocrites for not eating humans? No. Why? Because its not about being made of meat or not, but if the criteria for what meat is food and what meat isnt. What we have here is general xenophobia, its about creating the perception of 'others' and finding reasons for why we are not them.

In this instance, we (westerners and some other cultures) do not eat dog, we must not be them. They are therefor 'other'. Because they are 'other' they are horrifying for whatever reasons, it really does not matter once they are designated as 'other'. We don't eat dogs for a different reason than why they eat dog, if the mode of reasoning was similar there might be grounds for calling out hypocrisy.