The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has raised banning the eating of dogs in the country, his office said, a traditional practice that is becoming an international embarrassment.
The meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine with about 1 million dogs believed to be eaten annually, but consumption has declined as more people embrace the animals as companions rather than livestock.
The practice is something of a taboo among younger generations and pressure from animal rights activists has been mounting.
“Hasn’t the time come to prudently consider prohibiting dog meat consumption?” Moon asked the prime minister, Kim Boo-kyum, during a weekly meeting on Monday, according to the presidential spokesperson.
South Korea’s pet industry is on the rise, with a growing number of people living with dogs at home – the president among them. Moon is a known dog lover and has several canines at the presidential compound, including one he rescued after taking office.
Adopting Tory was one of Moon’s pledges during his presidential campaign and the pooch became the first rescue dog to make its way into the Blue House.
Moon made the remarks as he was briefed on a plan to improve the care system for abandoned pets, his spokeswoman said.
South Korea’s animal protection law is intended mainly to prevent the cruel slaughter of dogs and cats but does not ban consumption itself.
Nonetheless, authorities have invoked the law and other hygiene regulations to crack down on dog farms and restaurants ahead of international events such as the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
GeshtiannaSG on September 27th, 2021 at 18:33 UTC »
Dogs are eaten in Switzerland too, nobody goes on about it.
charlie_wonka on September 27th, 2021 at 13:18 UTC »
South Korean here to elaborate!
Dog meat isn't that prevalent. There is very little possibility that you'd encounter a restaurant that serves dog meat unless you visit a countryside. A majority of the younger generation haven't even eaten it, ore once or twice at the very most. It's an old school thing. Korea was very poor and didn't have much to eat, so dogs were certainly an option until 80s. That doesn't mean Koreans are particularly barbaric.
"How do you eat your pet?" Well, they don't. No one eats their own dog. No one eats poodles, retrievers, bulldogs. There are dogs that are raised for this purpose, like chickens and cows.
More than 6 million Korean homes have pet dogs. The market of pet food is reaching its all time high, more than 1 trillion won. (very, very roughly, a thousand won is a dollar) Korea is developing into a very pet friendly country.
I'd like to add that Western culture had its share of dog meat as well. I'm not saying that it's okay because the Western had also done it. My point is that people were hungry and meat were meat.
Here's a picture of a dog meat restaurant in Paris in the 1910s. (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Grande_Boucherie_Canine_a_Paris.jpg)
And I heard that Hitler wanted his pet to be poisoned as he was afraid that the soldiers of the Soviet Union might eat the dog, though I haven't found the exact source of this argument just yet.
So, before you judge, please remember the difference of both culture and history.
*Edit : Editing as some used better vocabulary for the situation! No, I'm not trying to justify it by saying Westerners did it as well. I was trying to emphasize the hunger factor as a human rather than a cultural thing.
And really, in my decades of Korean experience, to eat dog meat, you really have to seek it out. I guess you can come across it now and then but still. It not like McDonald's.
autotldr on September 27th, 2021 at 12:01 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 62%. (I'm a bot)
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