That's what a Chinese friend half-jokingly told me. Indeed, in China a dog is not only man's friend but could also be part of a delicious meal.

But in China, eating dog meat is not as common as eating beef or pork.

In general, dog meat is only available in a couple of special places like minority restaurants.

What has to be made clear is that the dog meat that is eaten in China comes from specially raised dogs and not from families' household pets. The belief that the Chinese are turning their pet dogs into meals is a misconception.

Today, there are a growing number of Chinese households raising dogs as domestic pets, and standing against the consumption of dog meat.

But those who love to consume dog food also have an argument. From their point of view the Chinese traditions of food and drink should not be dropped, and their rights should not be deprived because of some other people's sense of taste.

The conflict between dog lovers and lovers of dog meat has gone from the meat issue itself to the humane treatment of dogs.

But currently the group of dog meat consumers actually do experience a limitation of their rights, at least for the time period of the Olympics.

From July this year the city of Beijing prohibited through Olympic regulations the selling of dog meat.

The official explanation for this was that China wants to show some consideration for its western friends' habits and feelings towards dogs.

In China having a dog as a pet is becoming more and more popular, especially in big, hectic cities.

A lot of cities have enacted ordinances and regulations concerning the raising of dogs. For example it is not allowed to keep dogs of a big size (over 70cm) within the city.

At the beginning of the nineties, a permit for raising a pet dog cost 5,000 renminbi, while the income of a family was about 1000 renminbi.

Therefore, only a small number of people could afford this permit, and others had no choice but to raise ‘black dogs', or kept dogs illegally.

These ‘black dogs' could only be walked at nighttime. Or the owner had to walk his dog before dawn or after sunset.

But when those unlicensed dogs were found and detained by the authorities, the owners would find methods to free their dogs, those with money would pay, and those without would find others to help them.

The movie ‘Carla is a dog' tells the story of a relationship between a man and his dog.

Although you have to spend approximately 100 RMB per month for a dog, a lot of people who are short of cash do raise a dog.

Sociologists say that for people who suffer from loneliness dogs experience a long lasting affection and loyalty from pet dogs.

In the end I would like to say that you should love your dog because dogs are the friends of man. We love dogs because of their loyalty, not because of their taste.