Dog Farmers In South Korea Object To A Proposed Dog Meat Ban

As South Korea tries to outlaw the consumption of dog meat, many who love to eat dog meat in the centuries-old practice are battling to keep it lawful.

The owners of restaurants that serve the meat and the farmers who breed the dogs have staged protests in front of parliament, demanding that the ruling People Power Party and the government toss out their intentions to adopt a measure this year that would impose the ban.

They claim that outlawing dog meat will ruin their livelihoods and restrict the alternatives available to diners by removing a dish from the menu that is now only enjoyed by some elderly people but was once consumed by people on the Korean peninsula to combat the summer heat.

“If I have to close down, with the financial condition I’m in, there really is no answer to what I can do,” said Lee Kyeong-sig, who runs a farm outside Seoul raising 1,100 dogs. “I’ve been in this for 12 years and it is so sudden.”

In a Gallup Korea survey conducted last year, nearly two-thirds of participants said they were against eating dog meat, and just 8% said they had done so in the previous year—a decrease from 27% in 2015.

Dog meat is becoming less and less popular, and animal rights advocates are against it, but industry protests have prevented prior attempts to outlaw it.

This time, the government has stated that the planned prohibition would offer a three-year grace period for the industry to exit the market and would offer the greatest amount of financial assistance to individuals impacted.

There are indications that the prohibition may soon become a law because of the public’s support and the bipartisan support in parliament.

IT’S TIME TO CHANGE

The Korean Association of Edible Dogs claims that many more farms and eateries than those listed by the government will be impacted by this ban, despite the agricultural ministry’s refusal to provide information regarding its scale.

The union claimed that 3,000 restaurants and 3,500 farms that raised 1.5 million dogs would have to close, nearly twice as many as claimed by government figures.

Even though his business is rapidly dwindling, Nam Sung-gue, the owner of a restaurant for the past thirty years that sells dog meat boshintang, or “restoring” soup, claimed that the ban was unfair.

“If they try to ban the food that people have eaten for a long time, that is a wrong kind of law, a law that takes away the freedom to choose what we eat,” he said.

Many opponents of the ban point the finger at First Lady Kim Keon Hee, who owns six dogs with her husband President Yoon Suk Yeol, and is a prominent opponent of the consumption of dog meat.

When asked about Kim’s influence, a presidential office official responded, “There is support and consensus both in the country and abroad, as well as from the opposition party.”

The bill’s primary proponent, a governing party parliamentarian named An Byung-gil, added that the timing was right for reform. “What needs to be changed needs to be changed, even though it may be ingrained in tradition,” he declared.