State Rep. Glenn Wakai has introduced a bill, HR866, that addresses the issue of eating dog meat. The bill makes it illegal to kill, distribute, or sell dogs or cats for the purpose of eating them.

However, the bill does not outlaw the consumption of dogs and cats. Furthermore, it only addresses dogs and cats that were stolen, or were strays. It doesn't prevent someone from breeding and cultivating their own dogs and cats for culinary uses.

The preamble of the bill states:

Currently, a person may consume dog meat in Hawaii if it is from the person's own dog and it has been killed in a humane fashion. It is illegal, however, to steal someone else's dog and a violation of animal control laws to seize a stray dog and not surrender it to an animal control officer. Yet, there is no law specifically prohibiting the sale, purchase, or other distribution of stray or stolen dogs or cats for human consumption, whether humanely slaughtered or not.

The legislature further finds that, while the killing and sale of dogs for food is not a common practice in Hawaii, the Honolulu police department and the Hawaiian Humane Society have recently received reports of the illegal seizure and gruesome slaughter of dogs for meat. There have also been reports on Oahu of people selling stolen or stray dogs for consumption. The purpose of this Act is to prohibit the killing and sale, purchase, or other distribution of stray or stolen dogs or cats for human consumption.

While eating dogs and cats is perhaps an accepted practice in other countries, it certainly isn't here in the United States. This practice needs to be stopped in the United States before we have a problem of pets being stolen and stir-fried.

However, there are some people in Hawaii that are upset with this legislation, not necessarily because it threatens a lifestyle, but because it creates a negative stereotype against certain races. According to an article from the Associated Press:

State Rep. Alex Sonson says the proposed measure is a reaction to hearsay and would harm the image of Filipinos, Koreans and other Asian ethnic groups who make up the majority of the state's population.

"It perpetuates this myth that every Filipino is eating it," Sonson said. "But they're not."

Frank Wu, dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, believes the issue of eating dog is stressed "to caricature and condemn particular populations," namely Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese and other Asians. Wu wrote about dog-eating in his book "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White."

But I disagree. I've read the bill, and nowhere does it name any specific ethnic group.