JAKARTA – A Jakarta restaurant that sells dog meat has notched up more sales of it in the past year due to fewer competitors offering such dishes, but its owner, Ms Lastri, is not happy.
Indonesia’s largest city is on the verge of banning the trade and consumption of dog meat to prevent the spread of rabies and promote animal welfare.
Ms Lastri, who goes by one name, takes issue with the planned ban, arguing that it has been mooted merely because dogs are viewed as domesticated animals.
“We get the meat from wild dogs our supplier sources from the forest of Sukabumi (in West Java province), not from domesticated dogs. I myself keep dogs as pets, but never use (my dogs) as food ingredients,” she said.
Those who consume the meat are also upset at the impending ban, because they claim there are health benefits from eating it, including boosting the blood platelet levels of dengue patients.
Mr Lexi Tobing, a waiter at a food stall, said: “The government is deciding on the ban based on the voice of small groups of people, meaning they are the minority. But they are vocal. This is not fair.”
He told The Straits Times that the meat is tasty and has health benefits.
But even before the ban is implemented, dog meat is less easily found at restaurants and food stalls in Jakarta due to rising health concerns and social pressures.
Animal rights groups appear to have successfully influenced public opinion and pressured local authorities beyond Jakarta to restrict, discourage or ban the sale and serving of dog meat, experts say.
Also, younger people in cities like Jakarta have been increasingly viewing dogs as pets rather than food, leading to a decline in demand.
This explains the boom in business that Ms Lastri has experienced.
“I have buyers now all the way from (Jakarta’s satellite towns of) Tangerang and Bekasi who place delivery orders,” she told The Straits Times at her restaurant.
She said the cost to deliver her meals to these townships at the edge of Jakarta is “higher than the price of the food”.
Buyers have little choice because “many lapos have stopped selling B1 dishes now”, she said, using the slang term for a food stall that serves ethnic Batak food, of which dog meat is a delicacy.
Lapos refer to dog meat as B1 and pork as B2. The main province of the Batak people, who are mostly non-Muslim, is in North Sumatra.
A popular lapo chain, Ni Tondongta, stopped serving dog dishes in 2023, a cashier told ST.
Ms Lastri’s main servings are dog saksang, finely chopped meat cooked in spicy coconut-based sauce, and clear soup with ribs or feet. These dishes cost from around 40,000 rupiah (S$3) each.
Ms Lastri is the owner of a Jakarta restaurant that sells dog meat. She herself keeps dogs as pets but does not use them as food ingredients, she says.
ST PHOTO: WAHYUDI SOERIAATMADJA
On Oct 22, Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung told reporters that “the dog and cat gubernatorial regulation will soon be out, as promised, within a month”.
He had earlier said he agreed in principle to issue the ban after meeting animal rights activists in his office on Oct 13.
Previous governor Anies Baswedan discouraged Jakarta residents from consuming dog meat, but this has not significantly reduced the consumption of the meat.
In Solo in Central Java province, a roadside stall displays a large banner claiming to specialise in “Scooby-Doo” dishes, featuring the cartoon dog with his tongue out. The stall offers fried dog meat, dog meat satay, spicy dog meat and dog meat stew.
Some communities in Indonesia consume dog soup in the widely held belief that it will boost platelet levels, a popular home remedy among dengue patients in a country where the disease kills hundreds of people each year.
A bowl of dog soup in Jakarta is typically priced at 40,000 rupiah (S$3), excluding steamed rice.
ST PHOTO: WAHYUDI SOERIAATMADJA
Ms Cicilia, a Jakarta resident who is in the creative industry, said: “We don’t have dog dish regularly, but it is in our family tradition that when any of us is under the weather or ill, mum would cook dog saksang.”
But critics of the dog meat trade say there is no medical or scientific basis for that belief.
Experts such as Dr Theresia Rina Yunita of the Jakarta-based KlikDokter, a platform that offers online paid medical consultation, strongly advised against consuming dog meat as it could increase the spread of rabies and parasite infection such as salmonella.
Consuming the meat from a rabid animal is strongly discouraged, the World Health Organisation said in a 2018 report. “Although no human cases have been documented following the consumption of uncooked meat from a rabid animal, butchering or eating a rabid animal may potentially transmit rabies,” it said.
Veterinarian Merry Ferdinandez, chief operating officer of Jakarta Animal Aid Network, said of Indonesia’s 38 provinces, only 11 are free of rabies cases. She added that if the trade in dog meat is not curbed, the country may not have any more provinces that are rabies-free.
“We are confident Jakarta’s decision would be replicated by other regions across Indonesia because Jakarta is very influential and a bellwether for the country as it is the capital city,” she said.
Captured dogs awaiting slaughter are bound in sacks.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DOG MEAT FREE INDONESIA
Currently, around 8,000 dogs are slaughtered to be cooked every month in Jakarta, according to an estimate by animal rights coalition Dog Meat Free Indonesia (DMFI). This is fewer than in 2020, when 9,500 dogs were slaughtered monthly.
Among the hot spots for dog meat trade are North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, according to DMFI. It added that places including Bali, Semarang and Karanganyar are in the process of introducing a ban on the trade.
DMFI noted that many dogs are transported illegally from areas where rabies remains endemic, such as West Java, adding that many of those are stolen pets.
While cat meat is consumed in some parts of Indonesia, including in North Sulawesi, the scale is believed to be much smaller compared with dog meat, animal rights activists say.
