International Law

Beijing Olympics Going to the Dogs

By Stan

This story got a fair amount of play a week or so ago when I was busy playing lawyer. The following is from the WSJ China blog:

Restaurants at the 112 Olympics-contracted hotels in Beijing have been ordered not to offer dog meat during the Games, while other restaurants in the city are being urged to keep canine dishes off the menu and caterers won’t be allowed to provide dog meat dishes in “restricted zones” (such as around Games venues, Tiananmen Square, at airports and other transportation centers).

I don’t care about the substance of this too much. As an example of a stupid local ordinance (from a legal perspective), there’s not a lot of news here. Lots of municipalities pass silly rules like this.

What is more interesting is that someone somewhere in the government decided that the delicate sensibilities of foreign visitors could not withstand seeing dog on the menu. On my list of things I care about, that doesn’t even make the top ten (probably getting a visa would be #1 on my list).

It’s all so arbitrary, isn’t it?

Full post as published by China Hearsay on July 22, 2008 (boomark / email).