Not Just Yellow Breeds and Strays: Abolishing the dog-meat industry in South Korea

By Claudette Vaughan

They said it wouldn't happen as international pressure was building momentum against the dog meat industry and cat juice industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Korean government lulled South Korean activists into false hope. As we go to press one more setback looms for the Korean Animal Protection Society (KAPS) working in South Korea. Their government are going ahead with their plan to legitimise the dog meat market through the introduction of a policy on the hygienic control of the dog meat trade. Not only that but KAPS has other problems from the west to deal with as well.

Q. I'm trying to get to grips with the politics of South Korea and how this relates to the dog meat and cat juice industry. Can you help me?

A.  First of all, whether it's leftwing or rightwing politics in South Korea doesn't make any difference to the issue.  What matters is how nationalistic someone is and whether they mistakenly associate defending dog eating with it. Thanks to the mishandling of the dog eating issue in the 80s by foreigners, Koreans took the criticism of dogeating personally.  From there on the dog meat industry exploited these sentiments and started marketing dog as patriotic food. So, living in South Korea today, one has to care a lot about animals to oppose the government and the industry or just be a very objective and understanding person. 

Q.  There's been some recent very bad news for Korean dogs and cats. Please outline the current status of the legislation that is going to be passed by the South Korean government soon?

A.   The Korean government still intends to amend the 1991 Animal Protection Law, hopefully without any language legitimizing dogmeat or a definition of "pet animal" that excludes dogs and cats raised for food, so far so good.  However, the bad news is that the government is proposing separate legislation that would attempt to hygienically control dog meat.  This means redefining legal terms or means for doing business in the dog meat trade - a legal way to sell dog meat, under the guise of addressing public health and environmental concerns regarding the current illegal dog meat industry, which is not only very abusive but also very dirty.  In reality, the government is caving into the dogmeat lobby, which is seeking a way to do their business in a legitimate matter (legal) by addressing every concern except for the rights, welfare, suffering, and exploitation of the animals themselves. Dogs aren't marketed as 'food' animals. They are marketed for their medicinal or bogus health benefits, making them more akin to tigers and bears in Korea, which, hierarchically speaking, are regarded more as illegitimate animals for consumption.

Q.  Is the South Korean government susceptible to pressure?

A. Yes, many times in the past this has been proven.  The South Korean government is extremely sensitive and cares about its image abroad, but mostly it tries to cover up the issue or pass laws that they don't enforce.  They once banned dog soup, but later quietly lifted the ban.  We stopped them from passing a bad amendment last summer, so we do have victories that prevent things from getting worse, but we just can't get the industry abolished.

Q.  How can the trade be outlawed?

A. The government needs to explicitly outlaw the selling, slaughter, and consumption of dog and cat meat products, then enforce the law with stiff penalties in both the countryside, neighborhoods, and markets, and then educate the public about the ridiculous and fraudulent health/medicinal myths regarding these products. Finally, they could seek a way to find dog butchers other economic opportunities, besides exploiting animals and the environment.  They need to approach the dog and cat meat trade like they do with a legal crackdown on the trade in bear gall bladder and tiger penis, which isn't done all that well either, but the spirit of it with international outrage and support should be the same.  The fact is, it all needs to be more vigilantly prosecuted.

Q.  The west doesn't know enough about what's going on in the dog-meat trade and cat juice market so first, how big is the industry itself?

A. Over 2 million dogs and hundreds of thousands of cats are killed each year for this trade.  There are about 6 thousand dogmeat restaurants.  Dog meat has until recently been a very expensive and profitable meat to sell, but now the price is more comparable to beef.  The dog meat trade does very well and is a powerful lobbying group in the government. 

Q.  Is the dog industry breeders situated on the outskirts of town or are they expanding and becoming more mainstream and accepted?

A.  Most of the dogs are raised in the countryside, but there are many backyard and back yard home butchers as well.

Q.  What does the general population think about dog meat eating?

A.  Mostly people don't consume dogs or cats on a regular basis.  Millions however have dogs as companion animals and the pet industry is a billion-dollar industry here.  South Koreans spoil and love their companion animal dogs as much as anyone else in the world.  However, the mixed breeds, yellow big dogs, are considered acceptable food dogs.  Companion animal dogs are mostly small purebreed toy dogs.  It's the distinction between food dogs and pet dogs that makes this all possible. Most people would not find it acceptable to have their companion animal eaten, but a stray dog or yellow dog, especially from the countryside (work dog) is ok in their minds.  However, the truth is all dogs, purebred and mixed, are used in the dog meat trade. Most people are ignorant of this fact.   Many people are also unaware of the treatment of dogs and cats and how many are killed for reasons of mythical health benefits. The reasons aren't challenged much and are believed by many people to be true, as are beliefs regarding bear and tiger parts. Nowadays, people have taken up dogeating as a national defence of their cultural right due to a large degree to what is perceived as the bullying of foreigners coming in and telling them what to do.   Dog-meat eating has become a culturally relative issue, even though few people ever stop to challenge the lie that it was never a part of South Korean culture to begin with, but as soon as westerners mistook that it was, they became nationalistic, took offence and embraced dogeating out of spite.  Dog butchers exploited these sentiments and began marketing it as patriotic food, and not just as medicinal food anymore. Generally, people are just very ignorant about the dog meat trade and its history.  The media does not help and plays into the nationalist reactionary sentiments.  South Korea is very sensitive to foreign criticism and they are a very nationalistic people, due to their problematic history with foreign powers, especially Japan. So they'll defend anything they are criticised for without ever first thinking about it. 

Q.  How are the dogs and cats used and how are they murdered?

A.  Dogmeat is used in stews and soups and sometimes grilled however it's mostly used as viagra and as a cure for the summer heat. Some people drink dog wine too for the same reasons. Dogs are beaten or hanged and often their suffering is prolonged to enhance their meat (due to adrenaline release). Cats are boiled down to a tonic or juice to treat arthritis.  They are consumed mostly by the elderly. Dogs are consumed in greater quantities.  These industries really didn't get started until the 80s. Previous to this, dogmeat was always a back alley job or backyard made product, consumed by very few people.  You might be interested to learn that cats were never consumed until the 80s.

Q.  Both sister organisations, The Korean Animal Protection Society (KAPS) and the International Aid for Korean Animals (IAKA) based in California, has had problems with foreigners in different countries pushing the cruelty aspect in the media and not calling for the abolition of the dog meat and cat juice markets. Is this correct?

A. Yes. First people must understand that dogs and cats are not legal livestock and the methods used to kill them are illegal under the animal protection law (1991), so most importantly the laws must be enforced but these laws are weak.  If the government had the will, then they'd be enough to put an end to the industry. However, stronger legislation is welcomed and needed, but enforcement is our most important issue at the moment and it constantly consumes our efforts.  Also, activists must educate people that dogs and cats have never been a traditional food product or medicinal/health food product like bear gall bladder and tiger penis are.  The viagra effect of dogmeat eating is propaganda, fraudulent and dangerous to our health and the environment. It was only because years ago Koreans killed so much of their own wildlife and plants (traditional medicines) that they eventually turned to eating dogs.   Dog meat eating was taken up with gusto only 20 years ago and cats weren't even on the radar as a health benefit until then.  Of course they have to go all the way to the U.S. to get bear body parts now, after they've hunted them to extinction in parts of Asia.

If we treat the animals we love as family and not as a medicinal food product then we believe compassion for companion animals is the foundation for animal rights.   Dogs are still loved as companions in Korea. They're still not livestock and the world can do without one more livestock animal.  Enough animals already suffer as livestock.  Korea is a century behind the west on animals rights.  There isn't even a significant vegetarian movement in Korea yet either. It's all because Korea was so poor and suffered so much until recently. It takes time. People don't even have much of an idea of the link between charity and activism yet. These are luxuries of free and prosperous societies, which South Korea has only recently become, but like in the west, people are beginning to use their privileges to do good and do more than just be concerned with survival, which is all they could ever think about before as a developing country.

Q.  What challenges does the Korean Animal Protection Society face now?

A. We have to continuously be on guard as the government is always looking for ways to legalise the dogmeat industry or improve its image without actually improving the situation for dogs and cats. We continue to work for real change that saves dogs and cats and to finally put an end to this horrific dog/cat meat trade. If the funds come through we will also work to build our Centre called KAPS CARE (this Centre is for animal rescue and education) to help change Korean society to be more compassionate and just.

Q. What about the cat-juice industry? What are cats used for? How they are caught? And how they are murdered?

A.  About a few hundred thousand cats are killed each year. It's not that big of an industry compared to dogs.  Elderly people consume cat juice.  Worse than that is unlike dogs, cats are not well liked at all in South Korea and very few people have them as companion animals.  Many believe they are pests, just as they were in old Europe. They were thought to be evil.  Cats are raised in the countryside or taken from the streets (strays).  They are boiled down into a tonic/juice that supposedly helps arthritis if taken on a regular basis.  Sometimes they are boiled alive and other times they are put into bags and beaten with hammers. 

Q.  You have been having problems with Seoul groups not supporting your abolitionist stance. Please tell us how you differ from them?

A. They are not experienced activists.  They're afraid to take a tough stance.  They don't understand how politics works or how to create social change.  They think by being as polite and as quiet as possible behind the scenes will eventually help things with the government, but that has never worked in all of these 20 years and more so if this is a 'tactic' then it usually helps to produce the opposite effect e.g., governments passing useless legislation that makes their image look good abroad, but does nothing for the local animals.

Q.   PETA and In Defense of Animals (IDA) among others, have glossy campaigns on dog eating. Is there any 'hands on' work being done by them in South Korea to your knowledge?

A. Nothing really and nothing they've done has been effective or helpful to us.  We would officially prefer them to stay out of  South Korea. They've done more harm than good.  People need to support IAKA and KAPS if they actually want to help the Korean animals. Only Koreans working in South Korea with international support can stop this industry.

Q.  Have these foreign groups interfered with your work at all?

A.  Yes, they've raised a lot of money that didn't go towards helping dogs and cats in Korea. Frankly, we could have used it.  They distract people from the work we are doing. They should refer their supporters to us, if they want to help.  They use our issue to do fundraising for their own wellbeing. It's a hot and popular topic that potentially can raise a lot of money, but few organisations do much with it to help us. Also some of these large foreign groups have done some protests that sent the wrong messages to the Korean people and government.  They insist on reinforcing the myth that dogmeat is part of  Korean cultural cuisine, that it's legal, and that it "just needs to be more humane," but not banned.

Q. Why have Asian people on the whole, not responded on the animal rights (not welfare) front and why hasn't animal rights established itself in the East?

A.   Things are slowly changing.  Remember Korea and most of East Asia has been in the depths of poverty for so long, so people didn't have money to give to charities or time to start groups to change laws.  Under dictatorships like North Korea and China people are not even allow to organise and meet in small groups to do anything.  It takes freedom, money, and time to organise an animal rights movement. It is a privilege for a country to be able to focus on such matters. First human life has to mean something of value before animals can too and that hasn't always been the case. That's still not the case in North Korea. However, South Korea has finally began to get rich in the 1980s, so now the idea of activism and charities is slowly permeating our society and grows as freedoms and prosperity grows.

Q.  Why would Professor Chang Gil Park persuade people to support the governments recent stance on dog meat eating?

A.   He is nationalist, so he puts his government first before animals. He always does. He wants to make them look good and be happy. But his strategy won't work, things won't get better without pressure on the government coupled with international attention and criticism. There's simply not enough willpower from within for the government to solve this on their own innovative. It won't happen. Chang-gil Park is not who we are working with. He is against us. He is influencing other small groups as well against our goal.  I have a video tape off a TV broad casting channel where he is saying to the South Korean public to "Let's eat dog quietly." He means you can eat dog but don't advertise it around world. He is extremely articulate and has convinced other groups to support more or less 'humane slaughter' of dogs and cats.

Q.  What must we do to help you?

A.  Write a lot of letters and make donations to IAKA and KAPS.  Our website outlines things very well: www.koreananimals.org/help.htm

Also see Abolition-Online Article:
Moran Dogmeat Markets in South Korea: An Eyewitness Account.

Sunnan and Kyenan Kum are sisters in need of financial assistance for their dog and cat shelter and educational program in South Korea. Go to their website www.koreananimals.org  or contact us here for more information if you can help them. We have set up an Australian bank account for donations or we can tell you how to wire money straight to Sunnan Kum in South Korea.

Claudette Vaughan is the Australian representative of IAKA.