Why is dog meat not eaten in the west ?

I personally have no problem eating the meat of any animal provided it is raised and treated well throughout its life and killed as humanly as possible. (and is not an endangered animal)

But many people have an aversion to eating some animals, but are quite happy to eat others.

It actually makes no sense.

Christian influence in the early AD's that forbid or discouraged the eating of horses and dogs because of the association of both with pagan worship. Also, herbivores and omnivores produce more meat in a shorter time with less issues, so when domestic pigs, cows, goats, and sheep turned up it made economic sense to switch. Add to that the Judeo-Islamic food taboos that greatly influenced parts of Europe as well as North Africa and the Middle East... yeah, not hard to explain.

Though, of course, dog is still eaten sometimes in rural Switzerland by good reports: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255684/Fa... it just can't be legally sold so it doesn't reach wide attention like dog meat being sold in tourist-filled public markets in part of the far east.

because cow is a better alternative.

As a rule of thumb it is inefficient to eat meat eaters. A lot of energy is lost (google energy pyramid for an explanation if you need one). The risk getting parasites from food is larger if one is eating meat eaters. And we use dogs traditionally for other purposes than eating. It would be pretty to stupid to eat a dog after you've spend a lot of time training the dog for hunting, tracking or protection.

We don't eat horses either. They were more useful for work, though today it is more for sentimental reasons. We can be sentimental because we have plenty of food without eating dogs or horses.

It is because in this society dogs are a daily part of many of our lives. They are loved and cared for like a family member. The deep companionship we share with them makes it so we'd have a difficult time preying on them. It would be like eating your baby sister.

Primarily because in the west dogs are seen as pets, companions, etc. so it's looked down upon to eat them.

For the dog's sake.

I know of a few dogs that got there a.s eaten out ...oh the evils of too much alcohol.

It's a cultural thing.

We have better, cheaper alternatives and dogs have ever been our partners in survival and later our co workers. It's difficult to imagine them as food.

different cultures dude.. we just don't.