UN Dog meat traders up in arms over gov't plan to end dog meat consumption

Members of the Korean Association of Edible Dog protest in front of the presidential office in Seoul, Thursday, against a legislative move to ban the trade and consumption of dog meat. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Group guilty of animal cruelty for using live canines as props in demonstration: activists

By Lee Hae-rin

Hundreds of Korean dog meat farmers and traders from across the country gathered near the presidential office, Thursday, to make frantic last-ditch efforts against the government's plan to shut down their "cruel industry."

“Korea is a democratic country that grants in its Constitution the people’s right to choose what to eat and freedom to choose their profession. We have done nothing wrong but work hard all our lives as diligent providers of dog meat to the nation and we urge the government to protect the rights of us, the farmers!” said Ju Yeong-bong, secretary-general of the Korean Association of Edible Dog, an association with nearly 1,000 members nationwide.

The group also brought a dozen trucks loaded with nearly 100 canines, after making previous threats to bring 2 million.

According to animal advocacy groups, this is not the first time the group has used live animals as props in its demonstrations.


A canine from a dog meat farm is held in a cage on a truck owned by members of the dog meat farmers' association, Thursday. The group's move to release around 100 dogs during the protest was prevented by the police for safety reasons. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

“The group is holding these animals captive in confined spaces for hours, possibly without any water or food, as they have done multiple times in the past,” Jeung Seung-yong, leader of the local animal advocacy group Catch Dog, told The Korea Times next to trucks loaded with canines. He said his group plans to sue the dog farmers for animal cruelty.

Lee Sang-kyung, a campaigner at Humane Society International (HSI) Korea, also criticized the protesters’ cruel practice as “distasteful shock tactics that show no regard for animal welfare.”

The group repeatedly threatened to release the dogs during the rally. But police prevented that from happening for safety reasons.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in May that the association’s deployment of canines during demonstrations was an act of animal cruelty and advised the group to use photos or replicas instead.

At around 2 p.m., about an hour into the rally, a clash broke out between protesters and police, knocking over a guardrail. The group’s president, Kim Byeong-guk and two other members were taken to Yongsan Police Station under the allegations of violating the law on assembly and demonstration.


Members of an association of dog meat farmers clash with police during a protest against a legislative move to ban the consumption of dog meat in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

The heated protest came after the government and political parties pushed to end the country’s fading and contentious tradition of eating dog meat.

First lady Kim Keon Hee repeatedly vowed to end dog meat consumption during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s term, while the rival parties set an end to the dog meat trade as their main political agenda before the general elections next year. Each has proposed bills which are pending at the National Assembly.

The two parties seek to pass a legislative ban that contains a roadmap to assist and fund the farmers’ transition to alternative professions by year-end, which the group argues goes against the public consensus and threatens their livelihoods.

According to a government study last year, there are 1,150 dog farms in Korea raising over 520,000 dogs for consumption, which is a dramatic 35 percent drop compared to five years ago.

The dog meat traders, however, claim there are over 3,500 dog farms nationwide.

Dog meat consumption has also declined dramatically in recent years, many surveys show. Only 22 percent of Koreans consume or have consumed dog meat, while 13 percent said they still plan to consume dog meat, according to a survey last year by Chun Myung-sun, a professor of veterinary medicine at Seoul National University.

“Resisting this ban won’t change the indisputable fact that the vast majority of people in South Korea don’t eat dog meat ... Transitioning to crop growing at a time when South Korea just launched a national strategy to promote plant-based eating would be a truly visionary approach, supporting farmers in choosing to be a part of the country’s future food plan instead of anchoring them in the past,” HSI Korea campaigner Lee said.

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[Whoopsie Daisy]

These Korean meatballs really are the dog's bollox

 

[Rogue AI]

Free the doggos.

 

[eDove]

It sounds like the living conditions of these dogs is supar and not conducive to producing good meat anyway, but I'm exhausted by the mentality that this industry's only cruel because it's dogs. Pigs, cows, and chickens are just as intelligent and capable of some form of sentience, but no one cares when they're slaughtered en masse. Except for Pajeets, who deem cows as stupidly important as we do dogs and cats in the west.

 

[Unamused Bounty Hunter]

I love dogs and I wouldn't imagine treating my shepherd as coldly as they do but our sentiments towards dogs come from positions of privilege rather than desperation. Times were tough in Asia for most of their history and they didn't have much abundance and choice of meats to supplement their diets and so they chose to see dogs as a source of food and not exclusively a sacred pet. It's really only when high living standards and the abundance of food come that animal welfare really gets going.

 

[CEO of Husbandos]

I don't see any reason to continue eating dogs, they are no longer in a situation of famine and war. And gooks eat all the marine life they find along with beef, chicken and pork, just leave the doggos alone.

 

[northstar747]

I don't see any reason to continue eating dogs, they are no longer in a situation of famine and war. And gooks eat all the marine life they find along with beef, chicken and pork, just leave the doggos alone.

yeah so like with japan and whale, people ate that shit because they were fucking poor.

But due to their clanish natures once some outsider come along and says "eww thats wrong" people get defensive and proud, about their long history of dogs

 

[Übertroon]

People who use the word "doggo" should not be listened to

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

It sounds like the living conditions of these dogs is supar and not conducive to producing good meat anyway

There is no good dog or cat meat, it's some of the toughest meat there is and can only be used for stew for the most part.

our sentiments towards dogs come from positions of privilege rather than desperation. Times were tough in Asia for most of their history

Cows were actually domesticated in China originally around 8000 BC and there wasn't always such an insane amount of people in Asia where normal agriculture with actual livestock could not sustain them. Plus, the eating of dogs and cats has roots in TCM and folk superstitions, not simply desperation. Same reason they use endangered animal ivory for boner pills.

It's really only when high living standards and the abundance of food come that animal welfare really gets going.

It's just illogical to eat an animal not bred as livestock but as a companion and work animal. The meat is stringy and tough, almost inedible if not used for something like stew. It's a waste of an animal. It makes a lot more sense to eat animals we bred to have good meat.

 

[Hitman One]

Kill all Koreans and hand the country over to the dogs. The life of one dog is worth more than a billion soulless, Korean bugpeople.

 

[Unamused Bounty Hunter]

Cows were actually domesticated in China originally around 8000 BC and there wasn't always such an insane amount of people in Asia where normal agriculture with actual livestock could not sustain them. Plus, the eating of dogs and cats has roots in TCM and folk superstitions, not simply desperation. Same reason they use endangered animal ivory for boner pills.

Traditional medicine and religious babble are reasons that I didn't mention. They aren't mutually exclusive and go hand-to-hand for why they do it. Also, irc it was forbidden to kill and eat cattle in Ancient China because they were so useful which is kind of similar to how in Medieval Europe chicken were primarily for eggs and it was a luxury to eat them.

It's just illogical to eat an animal not bred as livestock but as a companion and work animal. The meat is stringy and tough, almost inedible if not used for something like stew. It's a waste of an animal. It makes a lot more sense to eat animals we bred to have good meat.

That is not true and again an argument made from a position of a privileged life of fine cuts. When survival is needed you'd eat about anything and animals aren't always needed or capable in the role of a work animal forever. During campaigns the Mongols would eat their horses if they needed to, especially if they couldn't be used in their role as transports. It is illogical to waste them just because they may be less tender than a wagyu beef served by a Michelin chef, and they have their own ways of cooking them to make it edible besides a stew. Survival is paramount and when you have scarcity you'd eat your dog if needed like lost survivor stories. It's more efficient to eat animals bred to be meat, but don't underestimate survival and keep in mind times of scarcity.

 

[teriyakiburns]

You will not eat the pugs.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

When survival is needed you'd eat about anything

It's understandable during famine and survival situations but South Korea doesn't need them to survive now and hasn't for decades. They do it for dumb cultural reasons.

It is illogical to waste them just because they may be less tender than a wagyu beef served by a Michelin chef

I don't think it's either dog or wagyu beef. Most cultures with comparable widespread agriculture would only eat dogs in the most desperate circumstances and didn't make a tradition out of it.

they have their own ways of cooking them to make it edible besides a stew

Such as? Do you even know anything about the dog meat industry? Try watching a documentary on it. It's not just innocent widdle starving Asians.

 

[Overpriced Gaming Chair]

Part of why "horsemeat scandal" was such a big deal: in many western European countries, at least for lot of people, horses had moved into the "pet" category.

(More practical concerns were the fundamental food safety violation of labels having false information, and horse muscles somehow storing certain veterinary drugs to the point they can end up to people eating their meat.)

 

[frozen_runner]

Lol, what is it with all breeds of slants being virulent dog-munchers? Must be in their yerrow DNA. It's because communism starved all of them.

 

[Unamused Bounty Hunter]

It's understandable during famine and survival situations but South Korea doesn't need them to survive now and hasn't for decades. They do it for dumb cultural reasons.

They have their own cultural superstitions and so do you. Wrong or right, I try not to belittle them no matter how... bizarre they are because you'd fail to understand it from their perspective.

I don't think it's either dog or wagyu beef. Most cultures with comparable widespread agriculture would only eat dogs in the most desperate circumstances and didn't make a tradition out of it.

I'm making a point that it doesn't have to be a prime fancy cut of meat to be edible and likeable. Most cultures may not eat dogs except under certain situations which means that some cultures may do outside these situations. They make their judgments to do so in whatever context, environment, and time period to do so. It's like any other cultural decision, people make a judgment call based on their unique context. We don't always end up with the same decisions just because we're hungry.

Such as? Do you even know anything about the dog meat industry? Try watching a documentary on it. It's not just innocent widdle starving Asians.

I'm not sure why you don't comprehend the idea that if you eat something for a long time you're gonna know how to prepare and cook it in a way that's edible and enjoyable. Dog meat in China, and presumably as well in Korea, is farmed along with the inevitable abduction of strays and lost pets by the unscrupulous. If your idea of learning about the dog meat industry is to primarily watch PETA-esque anti-dog-farming films, you'll just fail to understand why they can do it and enjoy it.

 

[RussianBlonde]

The bottom line is that fucking chonks eat everything. A bat, a dog, a whale, a dolphin.

Who gives a shit that they used to starve. Many countries experienced famines, do you see the Irish munching on dogs today?

Go to Asia and anything that moves will be consumed, you can buy packaged dried out bugs for snacking and other weird shit like turtle soup. Then they are also responsible for the extinction of animals because they think powdered rhino horn is gonna give them a boner.

Fuck these assholes. Just eat your fucking ramen.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

What the fuck is a dog meat farmer? Why not raise chicken/cows/pigs which are pretty much bred for the job? Either it's actual animal rearing to placate sickos who consume that meat, or outright scumbags that capture and kill strays and pets, and deserve to be shot and fed to dogs.

 

[Übertroon]

Personally never eaten dog, never will, but I think it's important to keep in mind that when you tell the gooks to not eat Lassie all they see is our equivalent of pajeet coming up to us to say

"Sir, SIR! Please do not needfull the cow. It is our friend. Please sir, eat some tasty beetles instead my friend, very much good."

 

[xn--mck1c]

It's understandable during famine and survival situations but South Korea doesn't need them to survive now and hasn't for decades. They do it for dumb cultural reasons.

But when the time comes that the (((soyence))) says about how I don't need meat anymore, what with their soy burgers and supplements, I ain't giving up my steak, dumb cultural reasons or not.