You arrive to Mexico City for a week.
Ready to do touristy things.
Perhaps visit the canals of Xochimilco.
Visit a pyramid or two.
Take a nice walk through Bosque de Chapultepec.
And, while doing so many things throughout the week, you get hungry.
In fact, you were probably hungry the second you took your first step into Mexico.
Largely because the flight was 5 hours and you haven't had a bite to eat outside of the crap food they gave you on the plane.
And also because you are excited to eat food from one of the best countries in Latin America when it comes to cuisine.
So, on your first night in the capital city of Mexico, you take a taxi to your hotel in Coyoacan.
Take a shower.
Then hit the town with eyes on the prize.
Some delicious Mexican tacos.
Soon enough, you find a street food spot that looks promising enough.
"5 tacos, por favor" you say to the cook in your best Spanish that you learned from Duolingo.
"Si" responds the cook.
A few minutes later, you are asked "salsa roja o verde?"
"Con verde?" being the follow up question.
Both questions being a bit challenging for you to understand as your Spanish is still a bit rusty since your high school Spanish class.
But you make it work.
The tacos soon come.
Delivered on a cheap, plastic plate.
Your stomach is growling.
Or so you think.
You grab the first taco.
The growling intensifies.
And, as you sink your teeth into the first bite, you hear a loud sound seemingly of nowhere.
A sound that resembles a dog.
Then, in what you think must be an hallucination, you rub your eyes to see more clearly what you can't believe is in front of you.
Your tacos are barking!
Literally barking!
And, seemingly out of nowhere, one of your tacos morphs into the face of a dog.
Growling at you.
Barking.
You also begin to suspect that maybe you had too many psychedelics before leaving the hotel.
But, despite that, one thing is clear...
YOU ARE EATING AN ACTUAL DOG.
Mexican Cuisine at its Finest: Dog Tacos
While it might sound like a joke, it actually isn't.
Here's something interesting but terrifying that came across my Facebook today from a local Mexico City group that I am part of.
From my understanding, it seems to say that this dude was selling "tacos de perro" or dog tacos and this organization in Mexico City intervened and saved up to 80 dogs.
And it seems to be the case that he either took the dogs from the streets or straight up robbed the dogs of other people (robadas).
Man, the American in me just thinks "damn, if only Mexicans had the Second Amendment. Then this dude would be Swiss cheese if he was caught trying to steal the dog of an owner who loved his dog.
Similarly, I wonder how many people would want to see this piece of shit be the victim in this scene here?
This city deserves a better class of criminal | The Dark Knight [4k, HDR]
Just for the record. I'm not advocating for violence. Don't sue me.
In all seriousness, it's a topic that comes up once in a while in Mexico City.
Let's get to some examples.
The Head of a Dog?
First, we have a case that went viral not long ago where someone took a picture at a street food spot where they spotted what appeared to be the head of a dog as you can see here.
"¿Es un perro? La imagen generó la polémica entre quienes piden saber el lugar hasta quienes ponen en duda que sea la cabeza de un perro y no faltaron las bromas sobre el suceso.
La imagen permite apreciar el hocico y parte de la nariz. De eso a asegurar que es de un perro… Podría ser, a lo mejor."
We then have this bit here:
"El sujeto narró que el pedazo de carne le llamó la atención, pues no parecía una cabeza de “res”, pues tenía una nariz y hocico muy parecido al de un canino, por lo que decidió tomar la foto.
Sin embargo, decidió reservar el nombre y la ubicación de la taquería. Lo único que detalló es que el precio era de 3 tacos por solo cinco pesos."
Most importantly, there isn't any other information about where this image was taken and the person who took it refuses to give up the information about it outside of the fact that the tacos they bought was extremely cheap: 3 tacos for 5 pesos.
Selling Dog Tacos in Mexico City
While unfortunately the last example couldn't be looked into, we do have some good news with two dudes being arrested for selling dog tacos as you can see here.
"La Fiscalía General de Justicia del Estado de México (FGJEM) informó que obtuvo la vinculación a proceso en contra de Jorge “N” y Julio César “N”, quienes fueron detenidos por vender tacos de perro en la Ciudad de México (CDMX)
Fueron vecinos del municipio de Tultitlán que denunciaron a las autoridades a los dos hombres que eran taqueros, los cuales tenían un puesto afuera de la estación del Metro Tacuba, donde vendían su producto elaborado con carne de perro."
Basically, the two dudes were arrested for selling dog tacos outside Metro Tacuba specifically.
Anyway, there are many other stories on the internet of this happening.
So let's get to some productive information to help those know if what they are eating is dog meat or not.
How to Know if You Are Eating Dog Meat
According to this article here, we have some tips on how to know if the meat you are eating is that of a dog.
First, if the food is too cheap to be real.
While gringos tend to describe Mexico as being "super cheap" and they are generally right if you earn USD, there is a point at which, even for Mexico, things can become suspiciously cheap.
So if you see some street food spot offering something like tacos 5x10 pesos, then know it probably isn't the meat advertised.
Second, there are usually details from the meat itself as the article cited shows here:
"el sabor de la carne de perro es intenso, de aroma penetrante, tiene una textura correosa, por lo que es más complicado de masticar."
Basically, the taste of the dog meat is intense, has a pungent smell (or aroma), a leathery texture and is consequently difficult to chew.
Also, if the food is too greasy, sticky or you have a hard time chewing it.
Above all, just observe the food itself before eating it with some of these details in mind.
Let's wrap this up anyhow.
Suspicious Dog Meat?
Finally, what should you do if you suspect someone of being involved in this?
Well, report it, I suppose!
Either because the meat you are eating is questionably not the meat you thought it was.
Perhaps reporting it on Twitter and @ing the right agency could help out (including making a formal denunciation obviously).
And, as you can see here, it's good to keep an eye out on if any neighbors of yours happen to have a suspiciously high amount of dogs running around (similar to the first guy we saw in this article that had 80 dogs).
"Recordemos que el pasado 19 de abril, en la colonia Mariano Escobedo, vecinos bloquearon la vía López Portillo para pedir a las autoridades que revisaran un predio en el que tenían una cantidad considerables de perritos."
"Los denunciantes argumentaron que por el calor, en días recientes llegaba un olor muy desagradable proveniente de un predio ubicado en la calle Sostenes Rocha."
"La dependencia mexiquense informó que en el inmueble ocupado por los detenidos halló cerca de 60 perritos en condiciones insalubres, por estos hechos y con los datos de prueba recabados y aportados por las autoridades se pudo determinar la probable participación de ambos sujetos en el delito que se les imputa."
So reporting it to the proper government agency and/or animal rights groups might help if you see anything funny.
Anything to Add?
I'm sure much more could be said on this topic.
And, if we're being honest, it wouldn't surprise me if this happens elsewhere in the world beyond Mexico City.
While I'm not entirely sure why these people kidnap dogs to kill and cook them, I can only guess that it saves them money somehow.
That or they are sick and twisted.
Maybe both!
Still, on the money topic, one has to wonder how much they save really to be motivated to go this low?
After all, that first example we saw involved a dude having some 80 dogs.
How long does he keep them before killing them?
Does he just let them starve to death?
Or feed them in the process?
Not to mention all the shitting and pissing they'd do in the house.
I'd have to imagine there is some cost to him kidnapping these dogs.
Both in terms of time and money.
So not only are these folks probably just saving an extra 5 pesos per taco on food but also they likely have Satan himself on their Whatsapp.
Anyway, that's all I got to say.
If you got anything to add, leave a comment below.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt