janken0524 said:

… That has to be the most disgraceful thing I have ever heard of. I am sure their views on human life can not be much different [a]…. You might say it is only a cat or only a dog, but they are a part of many families. [b] [c] … Just the cruel way in which they are slaughtered is way worse than we do our cattle for consumption. [d]

I added the letter organization above. [a] First sentence you wrote is flat-out racist. When I see racism I need to call it out. You go from their attitude towards food to extrapolating and insinuating a lower level of morality than you have. [b] Note that cats are generally not eaten in China so the author has stated a falsehood or mistake. [c] Dogs may be part of someone's families or not. Dogs that are eaten are not part of someone's family and not your family. [d] Dogs used for food are not skinned alive. How do you think a chef would do that to a big Collier? What would be the point? And how is the small-scale butchering of a dog worse than the industrial butchering of cattle? I do not remember reading the author say that the dog at the restaurant was skinned alive anyway…if he said it was, he would be telling another falsehood.

Vickie Soles wrote:

If you knew him [Mr. Kerasote ]… you could not possibly make such unkind, unknowing, judgmental comments… . … No, his story is not "fake." He has travelled the entire world extensively and is the epitome of the word honesty. ... "hey thank you for enlightening us" pat on the back for bringing this TRUE story to our attention?

The author has written comments that were not very well informed. He began the article with an inflammatory anecdote which, with just cursory observation from people who live in China (myself included), rings false. From his experience, the author has extrapolated that Chinese people regularly eat dog (few do, and those that do eat dog only eat it once-in-a-while...usually in the Winter time). One would believe that Chinese people eat stray animals and pets (uh…NO) From reading this article, several readers think Chinese will skin-alive dogs…pet dogs at that. And the reader gets the impression that Chinese people don't have compassion for animals (they love pets and have pets like Americans do). He says dog can be found in restaurants all over the country (not true…and did he go all over the country?) He criticizes how they are butchered without gas or other more expensive means available in the West. He makes a values judgment that because cats and dogs were bred to be friends (they weren't) of humans, killing them is worse than killing cows and pigs (which are sometimes pets in some parts of the world).

Notice in my reply to janken0524 I said the author stated falsehoods. I did not say the author was lying. The story may not be fake, but the authors observations about what he saw were glaringly wrong. There was little "enlightening" about this piece and a lot which can leed people to wrong conclusions.