Monday 4 January 2010

camel meat as dog treats

In responding to Maggie and Mitch's comment on my post about the dog birthday party Penny attended on Sunday, I remembered that our hostess had gone to the trouble of preparing a special doggy-bag of treats for dogs with sensitive skins.

Penny hasn't eaten any yet, but I'm keen to see whether she likes the camel meat treats that were included. Our hostess gets them from a canine skin specialist, so I'm confident they won't cause Penny any allergies.

It's a strange thing that Australia has huge herds of camels roaming the interior. They are the one-humped camel, dromedaries. As I was looking around to try to find information about dog treats (I didn't find any), I came across an article about the attempt to start up an export market for camel meat and another Lonely Planet piece about what a pity it will be if the meat of camels is wasted when they are culled. (Apparently they are breeding up to plague proportions.)

I sure hope that if such an industry is started, the camels are treated humanely. We humans don't have a good record of treating our fellow animals well.

6 comments:

Teal'c said...

Oh that is so typical - they breed too much and now we have to kill them... So how did they get here in the first place? We humans did it...

Sorry Parlance - that was my mom writing! She always get so upset about things like that. I'm sure I would like camel meat treats as long as the camels have been treated nicely... But it seems to be really difficult to be sure about the origin of meat nowadays - so I have been told. My bowl is always full. That is all that actually matters to me :)

Oh - and Happy New Year to you and Penny!
Slobbers Teal'c

Sue said...

Hmmm, does camel meat taste like tall chicken?

parlance said...

Teal'c, I'm with your mum! If it weren't that you dogs need to eat meat, I'd hardly set foot in the butchers shop. But I do try to find out whether the meat comes from animals that were respected in their dying. And in their living conditions, even more importantly.

parlance said...

Sue, I once tried ostrich, and I guess that should have tasted like tall chicken!

Teal'c said...

Hi Parlance - Tealc's mom here :) I'm the same. The only reason why I buy meat is because of Teal'c and sometimes because of my South African husband. I'm not entirely sure which of the two I could keep going for longer without meat. ;)
I'm going to an organic butcher though and I had already lots of discussions about that. "Why does your dog has to eat organic meat!?" Well - he doesn't. But I stick to my principals - I don't eat meat not because I don't like it but because of the animals and I won't compromise that in any way. Besides - at the end of the day I'm sure it is better for the animal, Teal'c and the environment as well.
Cheers from Sydney

parlance said...

Teal'c's mum, I agree. I prefer organic meat because there's a better chance the animals had a good life.