In China, consumers ensure that the food they buy is fresh by buying live animals—chickens, ducks, fish, frogs, and turtles, among others—and having the animals butchered either in front of them in the market or at home. In the United States, many Chinese immigrants continue this practice, sometimes to the consternation of a segment of the American population that considers the housing of these animals and their subsequent slaughter to be inhumane. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, the Chinese desire for fresh meat led to a lawsuit in 1998 by animal rights activists against Chinatown’s market owners.

The animal advocates sought a ban on the selling of live frogs and turtles in Chinese markets, and contended that the butchering of the animals violated health codes and anticruelty statues. According to the advocates’ charges, the animals were kept in cramped, unsanitary containers...