Forget your daughters – concentrate on locking up your dogs, or they could become the unwitting latest victims of the global food crisis, Cambodian dog owners and police warned this week.
Police have no firm figures, but anecdotal evidence suggests there is a dognapping epidemic underway in Cambodia
Dognappings were sharply up in some areas, and with the rice harvest still months away, popular drinking snacks such as rat are out of season and Fido is the new tapas for the nation's poor but avid rice wine drinkers, authorities said.
Conventional meats such as pork were increasingly becoming out of reach for some Cambodians as the price of all meats nearly doubled, and enterprising dog thieves had begun roaming the cities armed with wire lassoes, snaring dogs who ventured outside their homes, or even, in some cases, too close to their front gates.
Military police officer Ra Dy, of Russei Keo, said he personally had lost three dogs since the global food crisis and 10% inflation began to hit home in Cambodia, and had decided the heart ache was too much to get another canine companion again just yet.
"If you check on them every hour, they might still be there, but if you forget and leave them for two hours, they are gone," he said.
Khieu Viriya, 22, a Toul Tom Poung dog breeder, said he has also lost three dogs recently to thieves and his neighbors also reported a spike in the number of missing pooches.
"It is terrible to lose a dog, because they are like family, but even worse when you know they are to be eaten," he said.
Traditionally most Cambodians have refused to eat dog, viewing it as an unclean meat, although in 2003 the capital's mayor Kep Chuktema urged citizens to consume more to keep the stray dog population down.
Dog is sold in some restaurants, including high-end Korean establishments such as the Pyong Yang restaurant on Monivong Boulevard, and has become increasingly popular as a drinking snack amongst the country's avid rice wine fans, who believe it has medicinal properties and provides an energy boost.
Vendors said although dog, sometimes euphemistically sold as "special meat", remains inexpensive, like pork and other meats the price has risen sharply.
Dog meat lovers are not fussy about what sort of dog they consume – from street dog to German shepherd, generic fluffy Chinese to prize pug, a dog is a dog when it comes to the dinner plate, and all sell for around $10 each to restaurants clamoring to fill hungry drinker's stomachs.