FEARFUL OF offending western sensibilities about eating man's best friend, Beijing tourism officials have asked hoteliers and restaurateurs to take dog meat off the menu for the duration of next month's Olympics and September's Paralympics.
The Beijing Catering Trade Association has forbidden all 112 specially designated Olympic restaurants to provide dog meat dishes during the games, and "strongly advised" other establishments to put canine cuisine off the menu too.
Dog is mostly eaten by Beijing's large Korean community, but the Chinese have eaten dog for 7,000 years and it is widely believed to have medicinal qualities, such as an ability to lower blood pressure, as well as boosting virility.
Xiong Yumei, vice-director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, told Xinhua news agency that waiters should "patiently" suggest another dish if a customer ordered dog meat.
"Conflicts should be avoided," she said, adding that when eaten for medicinal purposes, the canine ingredient should be clearly listed.
One of the domesticated animals of ancient China favoured for food, dog is mentioned in the work of the philosopher Mencius, who recommended canine flesh as the "tastiest of all meats". Liu Bang, first emperor of the Han dynasty, was a fan of dog meat.
Dog features prominently in the cuisines of culinary hotspots such as Yunnan, Jiangsu and Guizhou, and it is said to have warming qualities in winter - hardly an issue in scorching Beijing in August.
Mostly it is eaten in the south, famous for the consumption of exotic beasts, but dog can be found on the menu all over China.
Dogs are still farmed in China for their meat, especially St Bernards which are bred for their size, but dog is supposedly less popular than before because of the high feeding costs. Young dogs are preferred because the meat is softer, and you can see dogs on open sale in the cages at meat markets in the south.
The meat is usually boiled, then served in a stew. Dogs as pets are not eaten, and dog meat is illegal in Hong Kong, but still widely available on the mainland.
The move is part of efforts "to respect the dining customs of different countries" and is also aimed at heading off protests by animal rights groups. South Korea introduced similar measures during the Olympics in Seoul in 1988.
There was no mention of whether other dishes unusual to the western palate - such as donkey, horse or deer pizzle - would also be off the menu for the games.