South Koreans are losing their appetite for man’s best friend.
In response to declining demand for dog meat in recent years, more and more of the country’s dog-meat farm operations are closing.
This shift is a credit to advocacy and rescue work from many humane groups, including Humane Society International and the Toledo Area Humane Society, which has taken in dogs rescued from Korean dog-meat operations.
Thanks to the efforts of these groups, not only are fewer Koreans eating dogs than in years past, many more are taking dogs as pets.
Between 2005 and 2014, South Korean officials estimate that the number of restaurants serving dog dropped by 40 percent. Meanwhile, one-quarter of South Korean adults now keep a companion animal.
Humane Society International estimates about 1,600 dogs rescued from South Korea since 2015 have been relocated to the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, including the animals sent to Toledo for adoption.
Among the biggest victories for the campaign to end dog-meat-farming in South Korea was the recent move by authorities to shutter the country’s largest dog slaughterhouse, Taepyeong, which used to operate in a Seoul suburb. The facility was responsible for the brutal electrocution death of thousands of dogs each year, which were then sold as meat.
As Toledo Area Humane Society CEO and President Stephen Heaven pointed out when the local shelter accepted Korean rescue dogs last year, the gruesome and inhumane slaughter practices in South Korea are particularly disturbing and set the dog-meat industry of that country apart from the slaughter of popular meat animals in this country.
The campaign to shut down South Korea’s dog-farming industry entirely could benefit from two pieces of legislation pending in the country’s national assembly. One bill would not allow dogs to be categorized as livestock, meaning they could not be raised for meat. The other would ban the practice of feeding dogs food waste, which dog-meat farms commonly do.
Dog-meat farming is more than a distasteful practice that makes westerners cringe. The fact that earnest advocacy from humane groups has succeeded in evolving public perception of the dog-meat industry in that country from favorable to disturbing is evidence of this.
South Korea’s government should move swiftly on the bills that would bring an end to the gruesome dog-meat trade in that country. Advocates can then turn their attention to other nations that still savagely farm dogs in horrific and inhumane conditions.
Dog lovers in this country and elsewhere in the world can do their part by opening their doors to rescue the thousands of animals who will need homes if they can be saved from slaughter.
American dog lovers have a part to play in getting dogs off the menu and into loving families. Now is the time step up.
First Published December 31, 2018, 10:30 a.m.
