Fw: article about Ch. 11 news on dogmeat

[Guest guest]

By DON KAPLAN

 

December 17, 2001 -- A series of reports on Ch. 11 news about a supposed

black market in New York for edible dog meat has landed a reporter in the

dog house with the city's Korean community.

In the past month, investigative reporter Polly Kreisman has aired three

provocative reports claiming to show that dog meat - considered a delicacy

in parts of Asia - can be bought here for the right price.

 

A fourth installment about legislation New York state is considering to ban

dog meat is planned to air this week on the station's 10 p.m. newscast.

 

The series has struck a highly senstitive nerve among Koreans who say the

stories smear them as pet killers. The segments' accuracy also appears to be

in question.

 

The reports, called " Man Bites Dog, " have been the subject of at least 62

anti-Kreisman stories in the Queens Korean-language Korean Daily - and even

the subject of a TV report that aired in Asia on a Korean newsmagazine

similar to " 60 Minutes. "

 

In the first two parts which aired on Nov. 19 and 20, Kreisman and the

Humane Society found a Korean farmer in the Catskill hamlet of Wurtsboro who

sold them what he claimed was a frozen dog carcass.

 

The transaction was caught on tape using a hidden camera that showed the

farmer burning the hair off the carcass with a blow torch and then snapping

off its paws with a bolt cutter.

 

The farmer was then shown slipping a New York State game tag on the carcass

to make it appear to inspectors that the animal had been killed legally by a

hunter.

 

Another Kreisman report shows a Humane Society investigator ordering and

picking up a take-out order of a dish called " boshintang " at a Korean

restaurant in Flushing.

 

In Korea, " boshintang " - which loosely translates as " healthy stew " -usually

contains dog meat.

 

Eating dog meat is not illegal in New York although it is against the law in

six other states including New Jersey.

 

In Korea and some parts of Asia such as China and Vietnam dog is a delicacy

but has become something of a cultural flashpoint.

 

The reports have incensed Korean-Americans who say that, while dog is an

acceptable meat in parts of Asia, Korean immigrants are aware of Western

sensitivites about canines and no longer eat it - or even want to.

 

" The reports damaged our community's image, " Korean American Community

Empowerment Council president, John Y. Park told The Post. " Koreans don't

eat dogs here "

 

In the U.S. the dish has been refashioned to contain lamb, goat or chicken.

 

Indeed, when the contents of the stew were tested in a lab, the meat was

identified as lamb or goat. But Kriesman did not say so in her report.

 

Park also said that the the carcass sold by the upstate farmer was not a dog

but a " coyote [that had been sold] to the farmer " by a local hunter. Ch.

11's report did say that its DNA tests showed the frozen carcass was a

" dog-coyote " mixed breed.

 

In a letter to Ch. 11 execs, members of the Korean Empowerment Council and

,the Korean American Senior Counseling Center say Kreisman's reports

" misrepresent the facts, and, through the report's insinuating tone, the

entire Korean American community. "

 

" We believe the story is factually accurate, " Ch. 11 general manger Betty

Ellen Berlamino wrote in a lengthy letter to Korean community leaders.

 

" We did not intend the story as a characterization of the entire Korean

American community,' and we do not believe that it was, " she wrote.

 

The Korean government even banned dog meat during the 1988 Seoul Olympics,

but has not enforced the ban since. Restaurants there still offer dog

entrees, according to published reports.

 

 

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