[West Ender]

There's a special relationship between humans and dogs, in the Western world at least, so we find the thought of eating them abhorrant. I couldn't, knowingly, eat one having had pet dogs all my life. I can't eat rabbit either, though I don't have a problem with other people eating it. When my parents kept hens, when I was a child, I could never eat one of our own - too personal - but I eat chicken.

I've eaten horse in France and Belgium, not very happily but it tasted OK, and I like venison even though Walt Disney's Bambi made me cry. I've helped to rear a few lambs but lamb is my favourite meat and I like cows but I eat beef. The close relationship isn't there, not like with dogs.

I'm not squeamish, I've eaten snails (sorry, escargot, delicious with garlic butter), camel's gonads and I love oysters etc. but dog? No way. It'd be almost like eating a person.

Come to think of it, would you eat a rat (farm reared, not wild and diseased)? I wonder if it tastes like rabbit.