Pro-dog meat lobby threatening objectors

IT has been known for some time now that dogs and cats are killed for human consumption in Korea. More and more people are beginning to realise that dog and cat butchers often put their victims through agonising torture in the process of killing. Dogs in the countryside are often hung on a rope in a tree and then hammered with metal pipes repeatedly causing their backs to break.

In market places, electrocutions may be carried out in a way to cause the victims a lot of pain and agony. Their fur may be burned off with a blowtorch, often while the animals are still alive, to brown their skin. Cats are repeatedly bludgeoned with hammers or placed in sacks and then bounced on the grounds. They are then thrown into large pots of boiling water, alive or dead.

This sickening picture of killing and torture of companion animals has angered many people around the world. Killing these animals for food is bad enough but why are they deliberately torturing the animals to death who have shown humans only affection and trust?

The truth is that both the practice of eating dogs and cats and the unspeakable cruelty in modern Korea arise from exactly the same superstition and lie ... that doing so brings health benefit. It is believed that the more pain these animals suffer before death, the more tender and aphrodisiac the meat becomes. Whereas anyone working in an abattoir knows that stress before death makes the meat tough and unpalatable.

Both the killing and the torture originated from a dangerous superstition, which was quickly marketed and emphasised by the dog-meat traders on the make as Korea's economy boom began in the 1980s. Korea's failure to dispel this myth has left Korea's image in the mud and has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of dogs and cats consumed, despite the fact that many Koreans are now interacting with their dogs much more closely than in the past.

Unfortunately many people in the West do not realise the fact that Koreans do not traditionally eat dog meat and have themselves regarded the practice of eating dogs as disgusting and revolting.

Many Koreans believed that eating animals that display affection to humans is clearly wrong. Dog meat was disgusting in a different sense to rat meat being disgusting. It was never a matter of a peculiar dietary habit. Koreans, like many Asians, believe in reciprocal altruism. They value friendship and loyalty as a prominent virtue (they place much more importance on these qualities than Westerners) and this is why Koreans who treated animals with any kind of compassion had been particularly appalled by dog meat eaters.

It is therefore very unfortunate that the dog meat traders' claim that the practice of eating dogs is part of Korean culture was accepted by some prominent Western animal charities and by parts of the British and the Western media that knew no different. Such a practice is no more part of Korean culture than the cruel execution of 'hung, drawn and quartered' is part of British culture.

Such misguided understanding of the issue has not only ridiculed Korea's image (for in the eyes of the world, all Koreans must be dog eaters and dog abusers if such a practice is allowed to continue) but also encouraged the Korean government to do as little as possible and avoid facing the very source of the problem - the illegal dog farms that have been spreading like cancer.

Dog farms in Korea are a recent phenomenon, although some people in the West seem to believe that Koreans have been treating dogs like cattle for centuries. The practice of eating dogs was once a result of famine and was frowned upon as a shameful and vile practice. Now it is turning into a highly profitable business backed up by a powerful pro-dog meat lobby.

It isn't just dogs and cats that are subject to appalling cruelty in Korea. When animal people visited the Moran Market in 2001, they saw rabbits as well as cats piled on top of each other so that those at the bottom suffocated and dehydrated. They saw poultry confined in cages covered with faeces. Before I left Korea 12 years ago or so, I had frequently seen chickens in a wire cage, so tightly cramped that they couldn't move about, before they were dragged out and killed in front of a buyer. The first time I heard about an animal being boiled alive wasn't about a cat but about a black goat. I have heard people talking about boiling alive a fish believing that this will increase health benefit. To my horror, these were just ordinary people.

The Korean Animal Protection Law, enacted in 1991, states that efforts shall be made to ensure that animals are properly fed, watered and exercised and that they receive adequate rest and sleep. It also states that no one shall kill animals in a way which is cruel or which provokes disgust without proper, rational reason. The Korean government knows full well what has been happening in these market places but has never bothered closing them down. So why is Korea so insensitive to cruelty to animals?

It is vitally important to understand that people who live in a culture which values reciprocity and friendship so highly cannot treat an animal which they themselves recognise as the most loyal animal as the source of food without becoming insensitive to the pain and suffering of all animals and, to certain extent, to the pain and suffering of other humans.

Dogs have never been treated as cattle in Korean history, however vigorously the dog meat dealers claim that there is no difference between dogs and other animals. Even the Korean government wants to advertise the fact that there are many Koreans who treat their dogs as family members. To end the consumption of dogs that have been long recognised as loyal animals and cats, who are now beginning to be accepted as companion animals by Koreans, is the most important step in Korea's animal welfare.

People who give away their pet dogs to dog meat markets because they become sick or inconvenient, do so because they think animals are just animals and we can do anything to them as we please. A society that tolerates dog meat encourages people to adopt this attitude towards all animals. One cannot view an animal with genuine love and kindness while at the same time thinking of it as a source of food. Eating dogs is the very source of the appalling treatment of all animals in Korea. The Korean animals lovers understand this and the outside world must respect and support their view if they wish to make a genuine difference.

Like it or not, dogs and cats are companion animals in most part of the world. People benefit from their affection towards human beings and from returning this affection with kindness and love. Therefore, no matter how some people try to justify the practice of eating dogs, those who eat dogs will be distrusted and disliked by those who have benefited from being loved by these animals and returning their affection. This does not change even if people were somehow persuaded to believe that there is nothing wrong in eating dogs.

I hope one day the Korean government and the Westerners who genuinely care for the interests of Koreans will come to understand this. I hope one day I will be proudly telling people that I came from South Korea.

But till that date, the Koreans who are fighting to end the killing and torture of companion animals within Korea need help from people around the world.

The pro-dog meat lobby in Korea is highly motivated by commercial, mercenary interests and spends a lot of money to spread the health myth and pro-dog meat propaganda.

They bombard people who try to reveal the falsehood of their propaganda and myth with well-organised hate mails and phone calls. Many people in Korea are fearful of stating their objection to dog meat in public. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that animal lovers in Korea are often nice people who hate getting into any kind of conflict, and by the fact that the practice of giving to charities and working as volunteers is not common in Korea. This is why Korea has failed to clean up its image on its own.

For more information on the plight of dogs and cats in Korea and to find out how to help them, please visit the Korea Animal Protection Society website: http://www.koreananimals.org

The Korea Animal Protection Society is a registered charity and the first organisation in Korea set up to prevent cruelty to animals and educate people about animals. They have provided care for needy dogs and cats in Korea through their sanctuary work and helped to create a statutory framework for future animal protection in Korea. They have also been raising public awareness within Korea about the cruelty inflicted upon dogs and cats. They lobby and campaign inside Korea against the powerful pro-dog meat lobby to end the consumption and torture of dogs and cats.