Letters to the Editor
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Boycott Chinese-made goods
The question of animal rights violations in China goes beyond the eating of dogs and cats. When there's a public health crisis -- say, an outbreak of rabies -- the government simply rounds up dogs -- strays and family pets alike -- and beats them to death. I recently saw a story on ABC.com about mistreatment of animals in Chinese circuses.
There's also the matter of human rights abuses, highlighted most recently by the unrest in Tibet.
For those reasons, I have a longstanding policy of not buying items that are made in China. It's not easy (have you tried finding a pair of shoes that's not made there?), my friends find it odd and probably annoying, and sometimes I have no choice but to buy Chinese-made goods. But I try, and I certainly felt vindicated by last year's slew of product recalls.
In fact, I just wrote to Dr. Scholl's, which recently moved its shoe manufacturing to China, so tell them that they've lost a customer because of it.
Sure there are abuses of animals in the United States. I speak up when I hear about those as well. That doesn't mean I don't have the right to decry mistreatment in China or anywhere else.