Korea: dog meat finally off the table

[thomas]

Last January, South Korea passed a law banning the dog meat trade. The legislation, set to come into force by 2027, aims to end the centuries-old practice of humans eating dog meat. Dog meat stew, called "boshintang", is considered a delicacy among some older South Koreans, but the meat has fallen out of favour with diners and is no longer popular with young people. Under the new law, dog meat consumption will not be illegal.

According to a Gallup poll last year, only 8% of people said they had tried dog meat in the past 12 months, down from 27% in 2015. Fewer than a fifth of those polled said they supported the consumption of the meat. Lee Chae-yeon, a 22-year-old student, said the ban was necessary to promote animal rights. "More people have pets today," she told the BBC in Seoul. "Dogs are like family now and it's not nice to eat our family."

South Korea passes law banning dog meat trade

Dog meat has fallen out of favour, particularly with young diners, in recent decades.

www.bbc.com

South Korea Bans Dog Meat, a Now-Unpopular Food

Breeding, killing and selling dogs for their meat will be banned in a country where it has fallen out of favor. Hundreds of thousands of the animal were still being bred for human consumption.

www.nytimes.com

​

Today, Nikkei Asia carried a feature by their Seoul correspondent, Kim Jaewon, on the country which nowadays sees canines as companions, not food.

My grandmother loved dog-meat stew. I remember her enjoying takeaway dog meat as a birthday treat, and asking me to have it with her -- I didn't like its unique flavor. To older South Koreans, dog meat is tender and mild. But to many young people, it is a taste of the past. It was not just my grandma who liked canine cuisine. When I was a teenager, members of my local church ate dog-meat stew together after Sunday service, as a special treat arranged by a member of the congregation, and some -- mainly older -- people still eat it, boiled or as a stew made with soybean paste, chives and green onions. In Korean this is called a "health supplement stew" or "nutrition stew" because it is believed to help people recover from illness or wounds. A well-meaning elderly man triggered a global media frenzy in 2015 when he offered dog meat as a health supplement to Mark Lippert, the then-U.S. ambassador to South Korea, after he was attacked by a knife-wielding anti-American. As it happened, Lippert was a dog lover often seen walking his basset hound, Grigsby, near his Seoul residence.

Sadly, dogs are not only consumed in Korea:

Dog meat is still eaten in several Asian countries—10 million dogs are slaughtered for food each year in China alone, according to Humane Society International, a U.K.-based nongovernmental organization. However, open and democratic South Korea has borne the brunt of criticism in the West, which largely treats dogs as pets and companions.

When South Korea hosted the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, the government asked local restaurants to take dog meat off their menus to avoid offending Western visitors. The ploy did not work -- U.S. TV networks focused on the issue, with some visiting dog meat restaurants near the host village. Adding to the negative publicity, some American and Canadian athletes adopted dogs saved from farms where they were being grown for the table.

And:

I do not judge my grandma's taste, but if she were still alive, I would have to tell her how I feel. "Grandma, I know you love dog meat stew. But it is time to say goodbye to it."

Paywall alert:

Time to take dog meat off the table

South Koreans now see canines as companions, not food

asia.nikkei.com

 

[johnnyG]

Speculation, but now maybe what is a dog needs to be clearly defined?

 

[Aoto]

Good to see more and more countries are banning dog meat.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

I don't know, I don't really see how dogs are particularly morally different from any other animal meat.

I do understand the emotional connection people have, I have it myself... having grown up with pet dogs, I certainly wouldn't eat them myself. I also wouldn't eat hamsters or guinea pigs, but those are eaten in some parts of the world and nobody is outlawing that practice AFAIK, even though they are widely kept as pets. Maybe because they are less intelligent than dogs?

Meanwhile, whales are still being eaten, despite their relatively high intelligence and dwindling numbers. Octopi also are quite intelligent, although I believe their numbers are fine, still... but in any case, they aren't cute and fuzzy.

 

[johnnyG]

I've sometimes wondered if octopuses (or crows) wonder if people have consciousness.

Or if they think it's all genetically ingrained.