Are Chinese restaurants in New York now allowed to sell dog meat? No, that's not true: an old video on YouTube making that claim in the description seems to have been embedded in an article that originated on a satire website. The video itself is possibly from Vietnam. Eating dog meat is illegal in New York (or anywhere else in the United States) under the Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act of 2018.
The video from 2015 (archived here and here) recently went viral again under the title "NEW YORK CHINESE RESTAURANTS ARE NOW ALLOWED TO SELL DOG MEAT!" and with a description that read:
A New York restaurant has been granted permission to consume and sell dog meat. A Chinese group successfully argued that the banning of the consumption of dog meat violated their religious rights. Read more @ http://dopevidz.com/new-york-chinese-...
This is the video in question (viewer discretion advised):
The background sounds of the video don't really sound like New York and a close-up of a newspaper in one of the shots also suggests the footage was not shot in New York:
The word "hôi" is not English but according to Google Translate it means "foul", "smelly" or "tainted" in Vietnamese. And in 2013 the exact same video (archived here) was already uploaded to YouTube with a title that read: "Köpek Yiyen Vietnamlılar" which Google translates from Turkish to English as "Vietnamese eating dog".
The link in the video description goes to http://dopevidz.com/new-york-chinese-restaurants-are-now-allowed-to-sell-dog-meat/, which is no longer online but a version from 2015 can still be found in the Internet Archive:
NEW YORK CHINESE RESTAURANTS ARE NOW ALLOWED TO SELL DOG MEAT!
A New York restaurant has been granted permission to consume and sell dog meat. A Chinese group successfully argued that the banning of the consumption of dog meat violated their religious rights. Puchow de Manila Eatery and Fine Dining has been granted provisional permission to sell and consume dog meat, while the Supreme Court decides if their case has merit.
Snopes already discovered earlier versions of this article in 2014 which originated on two known fake/satire websites:
U.S. Restaurant Granted Permission to Sell Dog Meat?
On 10 November 2014, the web site TheNewsNerd published an article positing Los Angeles restaurant Pugon de Manila Eatery and Fine Dining was granted "provisional permission" to serve dog meat after its owners successfully argued a ban on that form of food violated their religious freedom: Pugon de Manila Eatery and Fine Dining has been granted provisional permission to sell and consume dog meat, while the Supreme Court decides if their case has merit.
We did not find any trace of the Supreme Court case mentioned in the story so the whole thing is likely made up.
In any case there is no reason to worry about dogs being eaten in New York (or anywhere else in the United States) because in 2018 President Donald Trump signed a farm bill that makes it illegal to eat dogs (or cats):
President Trump signs the Farm Bill making dog and cat meat illegal in the United States
Friday, December 21, 2018 WASHINGTON (AP) -- On Thursday, in a groundbreaking victory for animals in the United States and across the world, the "Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act" was signed into law by President Trump as a provision of the Farm Bill.
The full text of the bill can be read here:
H.R.6720 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act of 2018
Sponsor: Rep. Buchanan, Vern [R-FL-16] (Introduced 09/06/2018) Committees: House - Agriculture | Senate - Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Latest Action: Senate - 09/17/2018 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
