Roasting Rover
08 November 2013 | Abemama, Kiribati
Mark
(Dog lovers may not want to read this.) We had just gone to shore at Abemama Atoll to check in with the local police officer. When we could not find him, we took a short walk into "town" - a smattering of small traditional buildings near a huge maniaba, (covered open air meeting house) and old concrete Catholic Church. Small motorbikes zoomed by on the road with shy smiling I-Kiribati of all ages. It was hot but there was a nice breeze and the shallow lagoon created a dazzling array of azure water just past the palms. I had noticed some aluminum wreckage just off the road and soon discovered it was the wreck of a WWII single engine plane - complete with bullet holes in the tail. As I was photographing the plane, I heard the yelping of a scared young dog and saw two young men dragging the animal along by a rope that had been tied to its neck. The young dog seemed to sense danger and was trying to flee. A group of other dogs followed along with interest. I wondered if the dog had done something wrong and was about to be punished. The guys were laughing and joking as they dragged the dog by the neck over some brush and then looped the rope over a high branch of a tree. Now I had heard that the I- Kiribati people sometimes eat dogs. When I'd read about this in J. Maarten Troost's book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, I'd thought maybe it was an exaggeration or at least a practice long since gone. When he'd lived on Tarawa and had a young dog of his own, some of the locals would eye his dog suspiciously saying "kang-kang" which means "yum!". I'm not really a dog person, but I do still consider dogs to be pets, if not mans best friend. And so, quite concerned for the animal, I asked a couple girls who were following the yelping dog, "why are they doing that to the dog?" "It's for the feast tonight" one said with a smile. My instinct was to protect the dog, to stop them, but who was I to do so? I watched, and to my dismay, the dog was hoisted by its neck off its feet and then whacked several times across the snout with a stick - pig-killing style. I mean we all joke back home about the proverbial bad Chinese restaurant that serves dog in place of other stir fry meat. This is the year 2013 and surely one would think we've moved on from eating dogs. But I am not in the USA and this is the local custom. After a few more yelps, the dog was quiet. It hung spinning in the air, emptying its bladder as the life left its body. I felt horrible. I looked around at the other dogs, a mother with young puppies and wondered how many of them would meet the same fate. They circled around gleefully and everyone laughed at the scene...except me. We moved along and walked across the causeway bridge. Looking back, I saw the brown dog, now limp, being carried by its tail out toward the beach. Another one of the men was stacking palm fronds for a fire. The dog would be part of the feast tonight, but we would not.