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Kongster Says: It's a dog's death - The Sunday Mail

 

By Chan Wai Kong kongster

09 June 2002

 

Picture this. A fella is about to beat a dog to death and cook

it for dinner

when a horrified foreigner begs for the torture to stop. He, or

she, rescues

the animal by buying poor Rover. This won't happen in the back

streets of

Kuala Lumpur, where if you have a nose for exotic meat, you can

still find

snake soup, monitor lizard porridge, braised iguana, smoked

crocodile

meat and others.

 

But in the cities of modern, high-tech South Korea, where

football's World

Cup is being held, Western tourists might be dashing into

restaurants and

saving dogs from the cooking pots.

 

What is most unappetising and disturbing about dog-eating in

Korea is the

way they kill the animal. A dog is hanged by the neck and

beaten to death

with a stick. Koreans believe that a painful and slow death

enhances the

taste and aphrodisiac qualities of the meat. A report said that

in 1993 two

million dogs were eaten by Koreans.

 

Last week, pictures of Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho -

cuddling a

pup that was rescued by a foreign TV crew from a dog market -

were

flashed around the world. The lucky doggie, spared from an

agonising

death, was nicknamed " Camachin " and became Spain's new team

mascot.

 

The more than 6,000 dog-meat restaurants in Korea cook the

canines in

many ways. More than 80, I am told. You can have ginseng dog,

roast

dog, stewed dog, dog kebab, dog soup, etc. If you are tired of

the staple

dog dish - the specially bred nurangi yellow dogs, you can have

Pekingese,

Spaniel, Collie, Labrador or other breeds.

 

I hope all this is not true, that these reports have been

conjured into a big

bone of contention by Western animal rights activists out of

scraps of

information gathered in the streets of Korea.

 

Koreans do keep dogs as pets, but when they get tired of them

or when

the critters grow old they are sold off to the meat market.

That's a dog's

life.

 

In Korea, the most popular dog dish is a soupy stew called

boshintang

which literally means soup that builds up the body.

International animal

rights groups have been howling at the Korean government,

urging it to

eradicate the dog eating culture. And protests have been

launched against

Beijing, host of the 2008 Olympic Games as the Chinese have

been

reported to be eating Saint Bernards.

 

You can pursue the issue doggedly. But how do you behave like a

dog in

the manger and tell a nation of people, who are so fiercely

proud of their

tradition and culture, that their culinary habit is

distasteful? I have nothing

against people eating dogs, that is if they are starving. After

all, the dog is

man's best friend and would readily give its life to defend its

master. For

example, if the North Koreans, who were facing starvation a few

years

ago, wanted to eat their dogs, I guess it would be morally

right. But it goes

against the conscience to eat dogs simply because you believe

it makes the

eater healthy and more virile.

 

Throughout history, the dog has complemented mankind -

faithfully,

fearlessly serving its master. It is a noble creature, full of

affection, and

loyal, no matter how cruel its owner is. And it doesn't throw

tantrums.

 

Dog eaters can argue dogmatically that it is no different from

killing cows,

goats and pigs for their meat. After all, they are four-legged

animals too.

 

Doggone it, you can argue. Can you get a cow to do search and

rescue?

Can you get a pig to lead the blind? Can you get a goat to

guard your

house? Which animal prances and wags its tail in joy when you

come home

from work, dog-tired? Do you appreciate gratitude? That is

unless you

believe that animals have rights.

 

The older generation of Hakka in this country, I am told, like

clay pot dog

meat spiced with herbs. Curry dog meat never seems to have

caught on

nor has satay dog.

 

I am half Hakka (on my mother's side) and I love to eat dog

too, hot dog

that is. Curious, I asked some of my local friends whether they

had eaten

dog meat. To my surprise, a number of them said " yes " .

 

Most of them said they ate dog meat when they were young when

their

parents bought it from restaurants.

 

" It tasted quite ordinary, like squirrel meat, " said a coy

female colleague.

 

" It tasted like red meat... like beef, " said a male colleague.

 

" How was the dog killed? " I asked.

 

" They killed it fast. Whacked the dog on the head with a blow

or two. "

Sickening. But it is still more humane than the Korean way. The

good thing

is that few Malaysians eat dog meat nowadays - most of them

consume

their " dogs " at fast food joints.

 

Let me tell you, in a dog-eat-dog world, the canine has proved

to be more

loyal and faithful than people's relationships with fellow

humans.

 

 

 

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