NGO in Special
Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United
Nations
Dog and cat abuse in South Korea
The information used on this page was sent to us by "It's Their Destiny", a UK based organisation dedicated to ending the torture and consumption of dogs and cats in South Korea. Sirius Global Animal Organisation firmly supports "It's Their
Destiny" in their campaign for the Korean animals. Please
support them in any way you can! Elly Maynard
"It seems that cruelty toward animals is endemic throughout Asia, although the South Koreans are truly outstanding in this field of endeavor. The exact figures vary according to the source, however it is certain that at least 2 million dogs are tortured to death each year.
No-one is prepared to hazard an estimate of the number of cats that are boiled alive to produce "Goyangi soju" (literally, "cat juice"), that they superstitiously believe to be a cure for arthritic problems. The "medicine" is considered to be more effective if the cat is slowly boiled to death in a pressure cooker.
Dogs die a slow death for a different reason. In the early 1980's, when new-found prosperity saw an increase in demand for beef and pork, the dog butchers propagated the myth that dog meat was an aphrodisiac. The final touch to this lie was the embellishment that the more the animal suffered in its death, the more tender and "potent" its flesh would be.
The dog butchers are very imaginative in the administering of this slow death. Slow strangulation or hanging is one of their favourite methods, since there are no costs involved and they can regulate the suffering and length of time it takes the dog to die. Often, the strangulation ends before the dog is dead, and it dies from shock as its fur is burnt off with a blow-torch.
Another favourite method is to suspend the dog by its hind legs and beat it to death with sticks or bats. This method has the advantage of not having to rely upon adrenaline to tenderise the meat and can take up to an hour.
Animal welfare groups have been protesting to the South Korean government for years. Far from listening to us however, their response has been to meet our peaceful protests with utter contempt. Although the consumption of dogs and cats has been illegal in South Korea since 1988, there has never been any attempt to enforce this law.
They are now going one step further. In February 2002, a bill is to be put before the Korean National Assembly to legalise this practise. This is in readiness for the World Cup in the summer when they are planning to try to convince Western visitors of the "acceptability" of eating companion animals.
Our belief at ITD is that the attempts to persuade the Korean government of the unacceptability of these practices have failed, and that sanctions are now necessary. We have therefore launched a new campaign.
We believe that we should redouble our protests to the Korean embassies and Government. A fresh list of contact addresses has been uploaded to our website . We also believe that the time has come to actively pursue an aggressive campaign to boycott all Korean produce. Although several organisations concerned about animal abuse in Korea have, individually and on separate occasions, called for a boycott of Korea, there has been no unified attempt to orchestrate such a campaign. With the fresh effort to legalise the torture prior to the World Cup, we are convinced that the time has come to call upon animal welfare groups world-wide to work together.
The initial activities of the campaign are as follows (not in order);
1) To contact the media in our own countries and in Korea to publicise:
2) To lobby politicians within our countries, demanding not only a trade boycott, but also the suspension of all international aid to South Korea:
3) To continue the protests to the Korean President and Embassies, and to expand this to cover the Pro-dogmeat group within the Korean Assembly:
4) To arrange simultaneous demonstrations at as many international venues as possible.
To those animal welfare organisations that have shied off from calling for a boycott, Korea's message must be clear.
We call upon everyone that cares about the plight of companion animals in Korea to join with us in our campaign. The time for half-measures and excuses is over."
