Dogs....In.....SPAAAAACE!

The Russians sent a dog into orbit during the early days of their space program, and today the Chinese are once again sending dogs into space...as dinner:

Yang Liwei, the 44-year-old military pilot who commanded the Shenzhou Five mission in 2003, revealed the menu on-board the spacecraft in his autobiography, The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth.

"Many of my friends are curious about what we eat [in space] and think that the astronauts must have some expensive delicacies, like shark's fin or abalone," he wrote. "Actually we ate quite normal food, there is no need to keep it a secret," he added.

He listed a menu including braised chicken, steamed fish and dog meat from Huajiang county in Guangdong, which is famed for its nutritional benefits in China.

A local proverb in the south of China is that "Huajiang dog is better for you than ginseng", referring to the medicinal root that plays a vital role in traditional Chinese medicine.

Maybe we should ask Highland Park High School in Illinois about this? After all, they won't send their girls basketball team to Arizona because they deemed the state "inconsistent with their morals and values". However, they are sending kids to communist China. Is eating dog consistent with their values and morals?