Stop The Oppression Permanently
Ban South Korean dog and cat meat trade
Stop the torture and death of cats and dogs in South Korea.
Contact government officials and ambassadors at all the South Korean embassies around the world to make them aware of what is still going on in their country.
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Stop this barbaric exploitation and abuse of animals! The cruelty inflicted on dogs and cats in your country is not going unnoticed throughout the world.
As an official with the power to make a
difference, please use your authority to support an amendment
to strengthen South Korea's Animal Protection Law to ban the
torture, killing, sale and consumption of dogs and cats.
Please enforce the South Korean Animal Protection Law to
prevent animal cruelty. Provide severe penalties for violations
and ensure that mistreated animals can be legally seized. Ban
the torture, killing, sale and consumption of dogs and
cats.
I am appalled and shocked to learn about the
rampant cruelties inflicted upon animals that have been
documented in South Korea's live food markets. The dogs are
raised in the most hideous and cruel environments, only to be
beaten and slaughtered by the millions.
There is no appropriate animal protection legislation to
prevent the prevailing animal cruelty currently taking place in
South Korea. As someone who believes strongly that animals
should not be treated in this way, I have the following
requests:
1. I urge the South Korean Government to strengthen the South
Korean Animal Protection Law to prevent animal cruelty and to
introduce basic animal protection regulations. It must also
provide penalties for violations and ensure that mistreated
animals can be legally seized from abusers and given immediate
refuge.
2. I request that the South Korean Government create an
enforceable law to ban the torture, killing, sale and
consumption of dogs and cats.
Various items related to the campaign at hand appear below. Please inform yourselves and others about the matter.
Every year, two million South Korean dogs and cats, the
majority of whom are homeless, are captured by butchers and
sold in open markets. They await the most gruesome fateādogs
are slowly and agonizingly torn apart, electrocuted, strangled,
or beaten to death while cats are bludgeoned and boiled alive
for human consumption. The cruelty and suffering is one of
unimaginable horror.
South Korean's Animal Protection Law, which was passed in 1991,
considers dogs to be "domestic pets," but the shadowy and
illicit world of the dog and cat industry flourishes because of
the shameful indifference of the South Korean government.
While the majority of South Koreans are dog and cat lovers,
myths and lies surrounding the alleged medicinal properties of
the meat persists among a very small minority of the
population.
South Koreans have only eaten dogs when poverty has been
widespread, as was the case during World War II. Yet even
during those punishing times, dogs were treated as companion
animals.
Source: IDA website. Read more there.
Local Group Demonstrates Against South Korea's Consumption
of Dogs And Cats
The San Francisco-based animal rights organization In Defense
of Animals wants South Koreans to stop eating animals--at least
the adorable ones, anyway.
The group is staging a protest in front of San Francisco's
South Korean consulate this Tuesday, where it will be
delivering a petition with over 15,000 signatures urging the
South Korean government to do more to stop the consumption of
dogs and cats inside of its borders.
This week's event is part of the "International Day of Action
for South Korean Dogs and Cats" the organization is
simultaneously holding in dozens of cities all over the
world.
"While it's now technically illegal to eat dogs and cats in
South Korea, the government has not been good about enforcing
the laws, thus allowing the tradition to continue in parts of
the country, [In Defense of Animals Campaign Manager Robin]
Dorman says. So killing dogs and cats is illegal, but the
processing and sale of the animals is not, she added. "The law
is deliberately obscure," Dorman says." (SF Weekly)
Source: Huffington Post. Read more there.
From All Creatures: Animals In Print The On-Line Newsletter 26 May 2010 Issue
Today, in violation of the Korean Animals Protection Act,
two million dogs are raised or trapped for human consumption.
Approximately 30% of these dogs are or were family pets,
sharing their lives with humans they loved and trusted.
Many people have the impression that dog consumption is a
traditional Korean food, this is anything but true. Up until
the last 600 years Koreans were mostly Buddhist and living
under the Koryo dynasty. The people were encouraged to eat a
meat free diets.
When this dynasty came to an end a new country was formed,
Korea. Though taking its name from the now defunct dynasty a
new belief system and lifestyle began. In the last few hundred
years there was a few people that did eat dog though it is was
never a cultural habit.
About 50 years ago poverty was severe in South Korea. At this
time the extremely impoverished people, did begin to consume
dogs. This was not a normal eating habit.
Twenty-five years ago a new trend began to take shape the dog
meat industry began to flourish. How did this happen?
Certainly not because of hunger, but due to a false belief
system that by consuming the meat of a TORTURED DOG a man may
increase his sexual virility. This caused dog flesh to became
especially popular and a status symbol among the wealthy.
Believing the adrenaline in the tissues of the tortured, slain
canine would somehow exert profound effects upon their manhood
their demand for this meat grew.
This belief has provided great financial opportunities for dog
meat dealers. With millions of dollars to be made, illegal dog
farms abound. The government looks the other way while these
innocent, trusting creatures are brutalized.
Dogs are usually raised on illegal, rural dog farms, but any
dog is actually fair game. Stray and abandoned dogs don't last
long in Korea. The dogs are kept in squalor, they are crammed
in wire cages too small for even one dog to be comfortable. The
situation is unbearable for these trusting animals. They become
dehydrated from lack of proper food and water. They are forced
to live in their own wastes and have no protection from extreme
weather.
These dogs are exceptionally vulnerable to diseases, especially
distemper and are quickly sold to markets or consumers before
they appear ill. Because of this, the usual age of slaughter is
between eighth months and a one year.
When the dogs are of age they are transported to large open
markets. The Hyundai, with its spaciousness, is a favorite
vehicle of transportation, accommodating the large cages
crammed with dogs. The dogs can be seen piled on top of one
another as they travel toward their doom.
They usually go to one of the three largest market places, The
Chilsung Market in Taegu City, the Gupo Market in Pusan City,
and the Moran Market in Sungnam City. Dogs are also sold in
other smaller market places throughout Korea. They can also be
found behind restaurants, alive and crammed into small cages,
waiting their turn to be tortured and slaughtered.
In the larger markets the dogs are transferred from the
vehicles to large cages that can hold up to 800 terrified and
confused animals. Most of the dogs in the market place closely
resemble each other as they are descendants of generations of
interbreeding. Through all of this many of the dogs, once
family pets, remain docile and hopeful, wagging their tales
when approached by humans.
The market place is a cramped area filled with dogs. Cars are
parked in random fashion and people can be seen walking about
selecting their dog.
Once a person makes his selection the dog is dragged by a noose
around its neck from its cage and purposely tortured until it
is allowed to die.
The dog, chosen for sale and slaughter, may be hung, beaten
with pipes or hammers and strangled repeatedly. During this
atrocity, the dogs my be heard yelping, screaming and howling
in agony as they struggle against their captors.
When the dog is assumed dead, it is shocked with an "electric
stick". Remember, difficult as this is to read, this form of
violent killing, according to the Koreans, is necessary to both
tenderize the flesh and improve its aphrodisiacal properties.
The more the dog suffers, the more flavorful and beneficial the
meat is thought to be, the more adrenaline. The Korean consumer
demands this form of slaughter less the meats affect are
nil.
The dog is then taken inside a building where it is placed
inside a vat of boiling water. Finally it is removed and
butchered according to the buyers discretion.
There, now, is the tragic story of a dogs' plight in Korea, but
what about the cats?
The cat fares no better in South Korea. They are not considered
good pets and the few people that do attempt to have a cat in
their home find it difficult. There is virtually no cat food or
kitty litter to be had. There are very few vets that treat
cats. Cats are thought to be a filthy, dangerous to a Korean's
health, and a threat to their well being.
Cats are best served by Koreans as an elixir usually called
Liquid Cat or "cat juice."
To accommodate the customers, the dealer will place cats in a
large sack and in what seems to be the tradition, beat them to
death. This is done either with a blunt object or just slamming
the sack upon the ground, preferably a concrete surface.
The cats, some still alive, are then placed in large pots of
boiling water, dates, ginger and chestnuts are added and the
final liquefied results are believed to cure rheumatism and
neuralgia.
Source: Animals' Voice, Volume 7, Number 2 Laura Moretti
Source: Jon Bearscove
Source: Kyenan Kum
Source: anonymous Korean citizens.
Dog Hung and Tortured In South Korea