Do Thais Eat Dogs? Thai Migrant Workers in Israel and the Dog Meat Eating Myth

Israelis accuse Thai migrant workers, who make for the bulk of the workforce of Israeli agriculture, for eating the flesh of Israeli pet dogs. However, eating dog meat is unacceptable in Thailand, while the accusations of eating dog meat in Israel have no material support. Why then are Israelis so adamant that the Thai migrant workers systematically hunt and eat their dogs. In this article, based on ethnographic research conducted in Israel’s rural periphery and on critical media analysis, I argue that the dog eating myth has very little to do with the Thai culinary preferences in Thailand or Israel, and was actually formulated by the Israelis so as to relegate the Thais, members of the new global class of cheap laborers, into a specific social position in the Israeli power-structure so as to justify their economic exploitation. Thus, dog meat was singled out as the basis for this derogatory myth because of the meaning and social positions attributed by Israelis to dogs.