Senate Hopeful Apologizes For Saying Vietnamese Refugees Ate Pets

[yuiyoshida]

A U.S. Senate hopeful and current Oregon county commissioner has apologized after coming under fire for remarks made about Vietnamese refugees being a "huge problem," and suggesting the refugees were "harvesting" neighbors' pets for food.

Faye Stewart, who serves as East Lane County commissioner, was participating in a forum on March 10 with fellow candidates running for to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Ron Wyden. In response to a question about how the United States should approach the issue of Syrian refugees, Stewart referred to the large influx of Vietnamese immigrants to Portland in the 1970s and '80s.

"We took in some refugees, I believe it was some Vietnamese refugees, into this state years ago and it created a huge problem because their culture and their lifestyle didn't mix with ours," Stewart said, adding that when refugees "didn't know how to heat their homes," they "started a fire in the middle of their living room in an apartment complex."

He continued: "Or when they needed something to eat, they went to their natural ways of doing it by harvesting people's dogs and cats, their pets."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/senate-hopeful-apologizes-saying-vietnamese-refugees-ate-pets-n550576

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Looks like he's been eating plenty of something himself.

[Jim Beard]

2. I don't know about Oregon but they did eat dogs in New Mexico

The day my dog was cooked for dinner

From the BBC

In Chinese cities in the early 1980s owning a pet was considered highly undesirable, bourgeois behaviour. None of my neighbours had one. It was also not entirely legal. There was no access to animal vaccines or vets, so pets could pose a public health risk.

One day, my mother announced we were going shopping - and when we returned a few hours later Doggie was no more. He had been strung up by the legs in our communal yard, and was soon turned into a stew, complete with herbs and hard-boiled eggs.

No-one paid any attention to my tears. I heard the neighbours say I would soon forget the whole thing.

They, on the other hand, were in a celebratory mood. In the years before China's economic boom, when some food was still rationed, it was rare to have the chance to feast on a whole animal.

[catnhatnh]

3. I don't know which is more of a joke

The fact that nowhere do they identify this idiot as a republican or this:

Faye Stewart, who serves as East Lane County commissioner, was participating in a forum on March 10 with fellow candidates running for to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Ron Wyden.

You got that? "running for to"???

Swing low, Sweet Jesus, Running for to make me puke.