If dog meat trade outrages you, try veganism

Thank you for USA TODAY’s article “Winter Olympics shine light on Korean dog meat trade.” Most of us do not have any direct impact on what happens to dogs at the Korean Peninsula, but each of us make daily choices about what happens to pigs, turkeys, cows and other animals akin to dogs and humans in their sentience.

The question isn’t how much they suffer in their lives and deaths. The question is do we continue to kill ani- mals when we don’t need to? A well-balanced plant-based diet is healthy. Research shows this. Vegan athletes show this. And the American Dietetic Association, Kaiser Permanente and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine support a vegan diet. If you are outraged and sickened by dogs ending up on the plates of others, would you honor your values of compassion, fairness and justice for other animals by going vegan? Beth Levine Rockville, Md.

Get over it, people. Most people around the world do not have the luxury of eating an American diet. A dog is an animal — no more, no less — just as cows, pigs, sheep and chickens, which are a large part of the American diet. Sal Maggiore

It’s not about just eating meat. The dogs are deliberately tortured before consumption! It is never OK to purposely hurt any living being!

In the U.S., we have animal welfare laws, and deliberate torture is not a part of our farming system. Phyllis Bert

During the Korean War, Koreans were starving and had no way to feed their children. The only thing that was alive was rats, dogs and cats. As a wise American once said, never judge anyone until you have walked a mile in his shoes. Ron Williams