The Japanese need to anthropomorphize everything is, or so I've read, a result of Shintoism, in which all things have a living spirit (or something like that, I'm not a fucking expert). Frankly it's kinda whacked. Beautiful at times, but definitely screwy. A westerner is amazed by the artistry but also, in the case of this plate, put off because of the association to eating dogs. But Japs don't see it that way. For them the spirit of the thing is separate to the corporal entity. Therefore this is a meal in the shape of a dog and not the same as eating a dog in any sense.