Fw: [animal_net] Urgent: Korean dogs and cats need your help.

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" iakakaps " <iaka

" iaka " <iaka

Thursday, March 10, 2005 7:17 AM

[animal_net] Urgent: Korean dogs and cats need your help.

 

 

 

Re: Urgent: Korean dogs and cats need your help.

 

Dear Friends of Korean Animals,

 

We have received very disturbing and sad news from Korea. The Korean

government is going ahead with their plan of legitimizing the dog meat trade

through the introduction of a policy on the hygienic control of the dog meat

trade. As you can see from the article below, the Ministry of Office for

Government Policy Coordination has decided to implement a set of laws

requiring hygienic management of the dog meat trade. This move will greatly

encourage dog-eating practice and is effectively legalizing dog meat trade.

 

We have been working so hard against the dangerous definition of pet

animals that could provide legal grounds for making distinction between pet

dogs and food dogs. The Korean government consistently denied their

intention of legalizing dog meat. We found it so strange that they would not

accept our proposed definition of companion animals if they had no intention

of legalizing dog meat. When the Ministry of Agriculture finally informed us

they have dropped the definition, we thought that they finally showed some

sense and had given up using the Animal Protection Law to help with

legitimizing dog meat trade, the very cause of rampant animal abuse in

Korea. When we found out that the Ministry of Agriculture wanted to

reintroduce the definition of pet animals in the Amendment and that the

Ministry of Office for Government Policy Coordination had held a meeting to

discuss the hygienic control of dog meat, we realized that something was

seriously wrong, but hoped that the Korean government would not so bluntly

put the dog eaters' demands before national interests, even though we had

little faith in their concern for animals.

 

We find it extremely disturbing that the Korean government is trying to

associate their attempt to legitimize the dog meat trade, with protecting

animals, by presenting their policy as a combination of protecting dogs and

protecting public health and the environment. You cannot protect dogs while

developing a policy to hygienically control dog meat. The latter is based on

the assumption that dog meat is acceptable, thereby making worse the very

cause of the senseless killing and torture of dogs for health myths. The

Korean government has long argued that to reduce cruelty to dogs in the

process of slaughter, they have to legalize dog meat. A lame excuse because,

if they genuinely wanted to reduce the amount of cruelty to dogs, all they

had to do was to strengthen and enforce the existing Animal Protection Law.

Instead, in the name of hygienic control, the government is on the verge of

being guilty of making the current situation worse than ever. They have

decided to continue to be guilty of letting millions of animals die in

misery due to their failure to close down the illegal trade. If the proposed

changes are implemented, they will be guilty of further increasing the

number of animals cruelly killed for fraudulent health myth. While claiming

that they are not legalizing dog meat, this is clearly a way of doing so

through the back door.

 

That the government is going ahead with such an unpopular policy which, in

their own words, is without a consensus from the majority of the Korean

public, shows that they were either greatly encouraged by or given strong

instruction from the Korean President, who has, in the past, openly talked

about legalizing dog meat. The Ministry of Agriculture had assured Sunnan

that the legalization of dog meat cannot happen, at least for a while,

because there is no consensus for legalizing dog meat among the general

public in Korea and no government department wants to take on such an

unpopular and troublesome task. We ask all our supporters to do all they can

to oppose the Korean government's attempt to legalize dog meat.

 

 

 

Please write to the Korean Government telling them they should:

 

.. Stop all their attempts to legalise the dog meat trade

.. Include all dogs and cats in the definition of " Companion Animals "

.. Enforce existing and future animal protection laws

.. Protect all dogs & cats in both the markets & countryside

· Introduce clear penalties for slaughtering & selling of dogs & cats for

food or medicine

.. Educate the public about the myths of dog & cat meat products

 

 

Write to your Member of Parliament or Congress and to the Korean Embassies

 

· Write to your Member of Parliament or Congress and to the Korean

Embassies.

 

- Ask them to contact the Korean Government and pressure them to protect all

dogs and cats as " pet animals " .

 

 

President Roh Moo-Hyun

Blue House

1 Sejong-Ro, Jongno-gu

Seoul

South Korea, 110-050

webmaster

webmaster

 

 

International Aid for Korean Animals

Korea Animal Protection Society

P.O. Box 20600, Oakland, 94620-0600, USA

www.koreananimals.org

iaka

(Tel/Fax.) 510-271-6795