“Korean Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) believes that educating people, so that they recognize that dogs are sentient beings, and getting these people to understand that the dog meat industry causes reprehensible suffering, will help in bringing an end to the industry.” – KARA / Photo: KARA

By Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

“Every year in South Korea, over two million dogs and thousands of cats are killed for food,” said Rosalyn Morrison. “Many are sadistically tortured prior to slaughter to ‘improve’ the taste of the meat—dogs are hung, beaten, torched, and killed in a variety of other horrific manners, while cats are boiled alive.”

Legislative assistant for government and legal affairs at Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Morrison said that today the picture turns especially dark for South Korea’s dogs.

August 7 is one of the lunar calendar’s Bok Days, designated as the three hottest days of summer. Some Koreans believe that during this scorching weather, eating dog meat keeps you cool.

Also, she said “they are consumed largely as a result of superstitions suggesting that dog meat enhances a man’s virility while cat tonic treats rheumatism… Unfortunately, this set of superstitions also dictates that in order to be most effective and enjoyable, the cats and dogs killed for meat should suffer extreme pain and die slow, agonizing deaths before being butchered. Needless to say, these myths are unsupported by science.”

AWI and In Defense of Animals have organized a Washington, D.C. rally and march from DuPont Circle to the South Korean Embassy as part of an “International Day of Action for South Korean Dogs and Cats.”

Animal Issues Reporter (AIR) asked Morrison to explain more about the demonstration and about South Korea’s dog and cat meat trade.

Interview with Rosalyn Morrison, Animal Welfare International

Animal Issues Reporter (AIR):  How do you expect news of your demonstration will reach the ears of the South Korean people and their government?

Rosalyn Morrison: After gathering in Dupont Circle, we will march up Massachusetts Avenue to the South Korean Embassy. We hope that these gestures, along with accompanying media attention, will emphasize to the South Korean government that the international community—like the majority of Koreans—disapproves of the superstition-driven torture of dogs and cats.

AIR: Why do you believe such demonstrations here in the United States can have an impact?

Morrison: Because the United States has a strong trade relationship with South Korea, the voice of the American people is meaningful.

AIR: Wouldn’t the South Korean government have a hard time enforcing something like this?  For example in California there’s now a law against the production and sale of foie gras, a food made from force-feeding ducks and geese, but apparently restaurants and fans of the food are finding ways around it, and some are just out and out breaking the law.

Morrison: Enforcement is a universal challenge, not only within the animal protection arena, but in all contexts. That certainly is not a reason to avoid regulating industries and practices that have adverse impacts on people or animals.

We are encouraging the South Korean government to adopt a prohibition against the torture, killing, butchering, and sale of dog and cat meat for human consumption because the practice is extremely inhumane—and happens to threaten the health of those who consume the meat.  Once a prohibition is in place, our focus will shift to enforcement.

International attention has been an important influence on enforcement of a dog meat ban in the Philippines, and I anticipate that if such a prohibition is established in South Korea, calls for effective enforcement from both within and outside of South Korea will serve to keep the government’s attention on the law and its purpose.

AIR: Supporters of eating foods that are banned on animal welfare grounds, like dog or cat meat or foie gras, often argue that such bans are hypocritical, because eating other animal products can also involve cruelty. For example they point to the animal welfare problems associated with large-scale farming and slaughter of pigs, chickens, and dairy cows as being just as bad.  How would you respond?

Morrison: There are three important points that I would like to emphasize in response to this question.

First, by raising awareness about the cruelty associated with the production of dog and cat meat, we are certainly not arguing that animal agriculture in the United States or elsewhere is without its own set of problems.

Sadly, many animals are suffering around the world, many of which are raised for food. It is important that they be given a voice through advocacy efforts like Tuesday’s rally.

While there are many important animal welfare concerns to be addressed both domestically and internationally, this particular event is intended to draw attention to the plight of cats and dogs in South Korea—it is not meant to imply that animal agriculture in the United States is a model of humane animal treatment.

Second, the dog and cat meat trade is readily distinguishable from concentrated animal feeding operations in the United States or elsewhere. Dog and cat meat and tonics are not viewed as staples in the South Korean diet, in contrast to cows, chickens, and pigs in the United States.

Instead, they are delicacies that are consumed largely as a result of superstitions suggesting that dog meat enhances a man’s virility while cat tonic treats rheumatism. Needless to say, these myths are unsupported by science.

Unfortunately, this set of superstitions also dictates that in order to be most effective and enjoyable, the cats and dogs killed for meat should suffer extreme pain and die slow, agonizing deaths before being butchered.

Dogs are often hung, beaten, torched, or electrocuted prior to being butchered. Cats suffer an equally gruesome fate as they are frequently tortured and thrown into boiling water while alive and conscious. It is these horrific methods of torture and slaughter that make the dog and cat meat trade uniquely disturbing.

Third, the dog and cat meat trade implicates important human health considerations. Unlike government-licensed and inspected feeding and slaughter operations, cat and dog slaughter operations typically involve filthy living conditions for the animals, many of which are diseased, as well as killing and butchering practices that are undertaken in extremely unsanitary conditions—often in makeshift slaughterhouses not subject to any kind of inspection.

While the extreme suffering of the animals that fall victim to this industry is arguably its greatest injustice, its human health implications should not be ignored.

AIR: Has such a law been officially proposed yet in South Korea?

Morrison: South Korean law is ambiguous with respect to the legality of the dog and cat meat trades. The nation’s government has not established an outright ban on the industry, nor has it explicitly designated dog and cat meat as food. It is technically impermissible to produce dog meat for human consumption, but there is no prohibition against breeding, raising, or slaughtering dogs to be used as meat.

South Korea’s Animal Protection Act, which has been in place since 2007, prohibits some of the most egregious forms of torture associated with the use of dogs and cats for meat, but these practices are typically ignored as enforcement is extremely lax.

AIR: Are local animal welfare groups there working to get one proposed in the legislature? Which are the groups?

Morrison: A number of animal welfare groups in South Korea actively advocate against the dog and cat meat trade. Opposition to these practices is widespread within the nation, just as it is in the West.

Among the most vocal South Korean advocacy groups working to protect dogs and cats is Korean Animal Rights Advocates (KARA). KARA drafted and has lobbied in support of the Prohibition of Slaughtering and Eating Companion Animals Special Draft Bill, which would protect “companion animals” from slaughter for food. Thus far, the bill has not advanced.

Please see additional information about KARA’s efforts and about the legal status of the dog meat industry.

More AIR on this topic:

Worldwide protests today against South Korea’s torture and consumption of dogs and cats

Want to do something about the South Korean dog and cat meat trade?

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Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is a career journalist, author, and editor. Credits include hundreds of articles for regional wire services and for  outlets such as National Geographic Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, Travelers’ Tales, NBC’s Petside.com, and Examiner.com (Animal Policy Examiner), a teleplay for CBS-TV, a short story for The Bark magazine, and 17 novels for Avon, E.P. Dutton, Simon and Schuster, and other major publishers.

Together with coauthor Shelley Frost, Katerina wrote a step-by-step guide for hands-on, in-the-trenches dog rescue, Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know About Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press).

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