Animal Rights Activists Demand the Closure of Dog Meat Markets In Seoul
Here is the latest from animal rights activist trying to stop the dog meat industry in South Korea:
Following the closure of most dog meat shops at Moran Market in Seongnam, animal rights activists are now targeting one of the largest dog meat markets in Seoul.
According to the Dongdaemun-gu Office, one of the six dog meat sellers at Gyeongdong Market in central Seoul closed his business last month after officials convinced him to so do.
This came after animal rights activists’ constant demands for banning the dog meat trade there.
“We have already responded to about 100 petitions on the issue this year,” a district official said. “It would be more than 1,000, including unofficial petitions by phone calls.”
The demand puts officials in a bind, in which they can do little to solve the issue. That’s because the current livestock hygiene laws do not classify dogs as livestock, and consequently can’t ban killing and sale of dogs, which makes it difficult for them to regulate the industry.
The only thing meat dealers must be cautious of is animal protection laws, which bans killing animals for no particular reason, killing them in a cruel way and killing them in front of other animals of the same kind.
Well aware of the laws, sellers usually electrocute dogs out of view of other dogs, which is legal. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but my biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers are very inhumane with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.
Most of them uses the electric rods to kill the dogs. However, the government should outlaw the dogmeats since the dog meat consumption has plumeted with number of dog meat restaurants going belly up, and I see no public backlash if they oulawed it. The owning of pet dogs is much more widespread, and the only Koreans who may object to that are seriously on the decline. Only old men may still enjoy the meat, but there maybe some young Koreans who don’t even like to consume the meat still defend the practice out of keeping the old tradition and as matter of principle. But those type of people are on the decline.
I don’t know any Koreans who eat dog meat… I doubt this is a hill most folks want to die on…