STOP KILLING DOGS IN SOUTH KOREA

The following was taken from an email I received from uniteddogs.com 27th February 2010. Excluding the excerpt from Wikipedia. I know we can make a difference in the lives of dogs in South Korea if we just help by signing these petitions.

Over 2 million dogs are brutally killed in South Korea every year.

That's over 5,000 dogs a day who get strangled, burned, electrocuted or beaten to death for their meat.

The South Korean government has accepted Animal Protection Laws which make animal torture illegal, but those laws have never been properly enforced in the country. The dog meat industry continues to thrive and the officials are reluctant and indifferent to ban it. Oh, sorry, except during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 2002 FIFA Cup when dog meat restaurants were forced to shut down temporarily in fear of bad impressions of South Korea.

Although forbidden to advertise themselves on main streets or in English, over 6,000 restaurants today serve dog meat in South Korea. And they don't get closed down.



I have taken this excerpt from Wikipedia –Dog Meat Consumption in South Korea. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat_consumption_in_South_Korea

“History

Korean people had mostly depended on crops for diet for millennia, not raising many pigs, chickens, or any other meat animals. Cattle had been valuable working animals for farming. Therefore, Koreans had had limited sources of animal protein, and the most affordable and available animal meats usually had come from dogs.

The consumption of dog meat can be traced back to antiquity. Dog bones were excavated in a neolithic settlement in Changnyeong (창녕), South Gyeongsang Province. A wall painting in the Goguryeo tombs complex (고구려 고분군; 高句麗 古墳群) in South Hwangghae Province, a UNESCO World Heritage site which dates from 4th century AD, depicts a slaughtered dog in a storehouse (Ahn, 2000) [1]. The Balhae (발해; 渤海) people also enjoyed dog meat, and the Koreans' appetite for canine cuisine seems to have come from those days.[2]

Approximately In 1816, Jeong Hack You (정학유; 丁學遊), the second son of Jeong Yak-yong (정약용; 丁若鏞), a prominent politician and scholar of Choseon dynasty at the time, wrote a poem called Nongawollyeonga (농가월령가; 農家月令歌). This poem, an important source of Korean folk history, describes what ordinary Korean farmer families did in each month of a year. in the description of August, the poem sings about a married woman visiting her birth parents with boiled dog meat, rice cake, and rice wine, thus shows the popularity of dog meat at the time (Ahn, 2000; Seo, 2002).

In Dongguk Seshigi (동국세시기; 東國歲時記), a book written by a Korean scholar Hong Suk Mo (홍석모) in 1849, contains a recipe of Boshintang including a boiled dog, green onion, and red chili pepper powder. [3]

Current Situation

Selling dog meat has been illegal in South Korea since 1984, as manufacturing and processing of dog meat have been outlawed. This is because South Korean Food Sanitary Law (식품위생법; 食品衛生法) does not include dog meat as a legal food ingredient. Also, dog meat has been categorized as 'repugnant food' (혐오식품; 嫌汚食品) under a regulation issued by Seoul Metropolitan Government, of which using as food ingredient is not legally permitted, making the use of dog meat as a food ingedient illegal at least in Seoul Metropolitan Area. [4] [5] However, the laws are not strictlly enforced and some portion of South Korean population still consume dog meat. The primary dog breed raised in dog farms for meat, the Nureongi (누렁이), or Hwangu (황구; 黃狗), differs from those breeds raised for domestic pets.[6]

Even though a fair number of South Koreans (anywhere from 5 to 30%) have tried it before, only a small percentage of the population eats it regularly.[citation needed] There is a large and vocal group of Korean people that are against the practice of eating dog meat.[7] There is also a large population of people in South Korea that do not eat or enjoy the meat, but do feel strongly that it is the right of others to do so.[7] There is a smaller but still vocal group of pro-dog cuisine people in South Korea who want to popularize the consumption of dog in Korea and the rest of the world [7], claiming it is a traditional culture of Korea with long history worth preserving.

Although it is technically illegal to sell dog meat in Korea, some restaurateurs still do so even though they risk losing their restaurant licenses. In 1997 one dog meat wholesaler in Seoul was brought up on charges of selling dog meat illegally. [8] BBC claim that, in 2003, approximately 4,000-6,000 restaurants served soups made from dog meat in Korea.[9] The soups cost about US$10 while dishes of steamed dog meat with rice cost about US$25. The BBC claims that eighty-five hundred tons of dog meat are consumed per year, with another 93,600 tons used to produce a medicinal tonic called Gaesoju (개소주).[9]

Dog meat is often consumed during the summer months and is either roasted or prepared in soups or stews. The most popular of these soups is Gaejang-guk, a spicy stew meant to balance the body's heat during the summer months. This is thought to ensure good health by balancing one's "ki" or vital energy of the body. A 19th century version of Gaejang-guk (개장국) explains the preparation of the dish by boiling dog meat with green onions and chili powder. Variations of the dish contain chicken and bamboo shoots.”



You can help us change the life of millions of dogs.

International support against dog torture and dog meat consumption is the only way to put pressure on the South Korean government to protect animal rights for real and ban the dog meat industry in all forms. This petition will be presented to the Korean officials in Seoul by the Korea Animal Rights Advocates when at least or more than 1 million signatures have been collected.

This petition is different from any other petition made in support for Korean dogs because of its great scope. People across the world are able to see the "Stop Killing Dogs" page in English, French and in many other languages, and understand that it is not a harmless ancient tradition or anything inevitable.





You can change that. Here is how.



Go to http://www.uniteddogs.com/stopkillingdogs and sign the Stop Killing Dogs petition. The petition will be given to government officials of South Korea by KARA (Korea Animal Rights Advocates) once we gather 1 million signatures.



Share this petition with your friends and family through e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. Join our Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Killing-Dogs-supporters-page/235848430651 and ask your friends to join as well. If every person helps who has signed the petition, we'll reach our goal much, much faster.



Show that you care! By ordering the official petition bandana and the badge (for you and your best friend) you can express your support in a stylish way. For each set sold, we donate €1 to KARA (Korea Animal Rights Advocates).



All bandanas for pets are red and bundled with a gray badge. For people, we have two sets to choose from - the red set (includes a red bandana and a gray badge) and the white set (includes a white bandana and a red badge).

To order go to -

http://www.uniteddogs.com/stopkillingdogs/shop/