7% of Japanese Eat Dog Food!?

7% of Japanese admit to eating dog food, according to a recent survey, we are told, though anyone doubting their culinary sensibilities will be relieved to hear it is a brand of dog food by Royal Appointment.

Quoth the Telegraph:

Dog, of course, is a Korean staple – at least, it was in more impoverished times – and the consequence of poor agricultural soil, although a recent survey revealed that seven per cent of Japanese respondents admitted to eating dog food, albeit a top-end brand associated with the British Royal Family.

Though of course, a little digging soon reveals the sordid truth of this matter. The claim is in fact drawn from the sensationalistic and misleading title of a pathetic link grubbing article, careful reading of which reveals we are dealing with a liberal reading of:

Q2: What sort of dog food do you usually buy? (Sample size=1,696, multiple answer)

Commercial ordinary dog food	78.1%
Commercial premium dog food	23.3%
Specially hand-made food	4.1%
Same food as humans eat	7.1%
Other	2.4%

Same food as humans eat?

An interesting, if underhand, way of promoting an otherwise totally uninteresting article of the demographics of dog food, coupled with superb journalistic rigour by the Telegraph leads to a first rate headline, which few, I think, could resist spinning into a provocatively titled article, making cunning use of an incompletely informative first paragraph: Itainews.