Why are dogs more sacred than other animals?

CYDdharta

People didn't really care too much that Pres. 0bama admitted to eating dogs.

MayCaesar

It is all about the culture. The reasons are likely to have been religious at first, and over time they just became shrouded in the mist of history, with people still following these arbitrary norms.

Indians have a stigma against eating cows; Israeli have a stigma against eating pigs; we have a stigma against eating dogs, which is actually fully acceptable in Korea and in some parts of China. Almost all cultures have a stigma against eating insects, but Chinese have no problem with it.

I am not aware of any cultures that would have a stigma against eating chickens, which I believe is a result of chickens being so abundant and easy to grow and cook, that having a stigma against them is too economically damaging to virtually all societies for it to become a part of their culture.

Ampersand

@대왕광개토

People will not want to see anything they have a strong positive emotional attachment to harmed. In many, but not all, countries dogs are a very common pet and people will grow up with them, see clip shows on TV which will show dogs doing funny thing, have toys of them as a child and essentially be educated from a very young age that dogs = good and fun.

The difference is largely cultural, although the dog also has an obvious advantage over some creatures (say a mollusc) in that as an intelligent mammal it's a lot easier to empathise and anthropomorphise it.