Dog meat's new tale

[Guest guest]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_cerralbo/20050425.html

 

 

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Junk dogs, the popular dog for any of the 350 different dog meat

dishes

 

The first thing that struck me walking through Moran Market in

southern Seoul was how they kept animals for the slaughter.

 

Yellow-coloured dogs were lying side-by-side without any room to move

or stretch. Dogs, chickens, goats, turkeys and ducks where lined up

in cages, ready for the next shopper searching for fresh meat.

 

The smells were varied – on the one side it smelled like Old

MacDonald's farm, while on the other side it smelled like barbecued

meat.

 

I didn't witness any active cruelty being inflicted on the animals.

The shopkeepers had obviously had bad experiences with foreigners and

it was made clear to me that I was not welcome.

 

The story is that dogs are hung from the bars of their cages and when

nearly dead are taken down to have their fur blowtorched off – none

of which I've seen.

 

While I was taking pictures, a butcher came running toward me waving

a blade about the size of my forearm yelling for me to stop and

leave. Luckily, I spoke enough Korean to calm him down and then

offered him a smoke to smooth things over.

 

 

 

Boshin-tang (dog meat soup) served with rice and vegetables.

On the other side of the market where it smells like a tailgate

party, a foreigner was eating boshin-tang (body preserving stew), or

dog meat soup.

 

" How is the soup? " I asked.

 

" The texture is almost like mutton. It has a fatty taste and is very

chewy.

 

I eat it about once a week, " said the foreigner.

 

The brutality of dogs being slaughtered is a tale many times told,

but recently, the age-old dispute over one of South Korea's

traditional dishes has resurfaced after a government plan to impose

strict regulations on the processing and selling of dog meat.

 

The measures would prohibit any brutal slaughter of dogs and also

sets hygiene guidelines on the processing and sale of gae gogi (dog

meat).

 

The new measures brought an immediate response from animal rights

activists and people who oppose the practice. They say that the

government's plan won't bring the trade under control but instead

will officially legalize the centuries-old practice.

 

 

 

Butcher preparing duck along side dog meat.

" Setting up these standards will only legalize this cruel practice, "

said the chairwoman of the Korean Animal Protection Society, Kum Sun-

nam. " This will not do the animals any favour. Dog-meat butchers will

feel vindicated. There is also a fear that more people will eat dog

now that there are higher hygiene laws. "

 

" This is just the government's way to control animal groups, " added

Kum.

 

The major complaint from KAPS and other animal rights groups is the

brutal methods by which many dogs are killed in South Korea. Dog-meat

lovers believe that by beating, strangling or boiling live dogs they

will give the meat a better taste and increase its medicinal value –

" a value that has not been proven by medical science, " said Kum.

 

Proponents of the age-old dish see it differently. They argue that

dog food has many medicinal values such as beefing up men's virility

and improving women's skin.

 

" Anyone can tell you that eating dog meat is very healthy, " said Park

Gye-dong while enjoying a bowl of boshin-tang with his friends, " The

Chinese wrote about its healing powers 3,000 years ago in their

medical texts, and even now doctors tell patients who are

recuperating from operations to eat dog meat in order to recover

quickly. I would eat it more often but it's a little expensive. "

 

Sitting with Park was Kim Dong-soo who added, " Sometimes we become a

little obsessed with the feelings of Westerners who try to lecture us

on values and regard others as barbarians. Who are they to lecture

us? We have 5,000 years of history, and dog eating is part of our

culture. "

 

A tradition that Kum hopes will die out soon before a negative lesson

is passed on to Korean children, who see dogs as pets and not a food

source.

 

" If children think that eating pets is OK, who knows what kind of

cruel things they will do to animals, " said Kum. " It also harms the

younger generation because the world sees Koreans with a tainted

image. This is not a good tradition to pass on to our children. "

 

But Dr. Yong-Geun Ann, who teaches in the food nutrition department

at Chungcheong College and has written books on the subject, believes

that Koreans should not feel ashamed because of the misguided views

of others.

 

" The resumption of the controversy over the edibility of dog meat is

due to the federal government's tepid attitude. The government should

allow the slaughter and consumption of dog by law. Regrettably, the

federal government hasn't made any decision on it up to now.

 

" It's due to the fact that the government is being pulled in opposing

directions, with the animal rights activists on one side and the dog

meat consumers on the other, " said Ann who is also known as Dr.

Dogmeat.

 

The Korean government has been under severe criticism at home and

abroad for disregarding what dogs have been subjected to before they

are slaughtered.

 

Since the current laws on animal protection and slaughtering don't

include dogs as animals fit for human consumption, the processing of

dog meat has gone underground with no official guidelines to

guarantee hygiene and animal welfare.

 

With about 6,000 restaurants in Korea and 10 per cent of the

population eating any of the 350 different dog-meat dishes, the legal

position doesn't matter – the industry is thriving without any

serious attempt at control.