In Indonesia, as in some other countries where dogs are eaten, the industry operates largely in the shadows, and reliable data on consumption is scarce. But restaurant owners, butchers, researchers and animal rights advocates agree that more dogs are being killed and eaten here.
Indonesia is an example of how economic development can also have the opposite effect, making dog meat newly affordable for people who have no particular objection to it, say people who have studied the subject.
Dogs are slaughtered much more cruelly on Bali, said Ms. Girardi, the Bali animal welfare advocate. Many are strangled and then butchered immediately, she said, on the theory that strangling them makes the meat more tender. Others are put in sacks and beaten to death.
