Korea - Dog and Cat Meat

[Guest guest]

http://members.tripod.com/~animom/koreandogs.html

 

If I told you In South Korea, it is common to eat dogs. This is not done

in a humane manner, but by torturing them to death by hanging,

strangulation, and beatings with such objects as bricks, large rocks,

heavy rod-like objects and electrocution. They do this for long periods

of time in order to terrorize and cause great suffering to the animal.

They die a very slow and painful death. This brutal execution is done to

dogs, because many South Koreans believe the flesh from a dog who is

tortured to death has aphrodisiac qualities and tastes better. Some

South Koreans torture cats by hitting them on the head repeatedly with

hammers, by placing them in sacks which are then pounded on the ground,

or by other methods that produce slow and painful death. Dead cats are

cooked along with ginger, dates and chestnuts to make a brown paste or

" Liquid Cat " which is foolishly thought by many South Koreans to be a

remedy for rheumatism and joint problems, "

 

http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/korea/korea.shtml

 

The Treatment of Dogs and Cats in Korea

hanging dogShould the brutal treatment and death of a dog or cat concern

us more than if the same were done to a cow, or a sheep, or a chicken.

It shouldn't, but animals that the " Western world " looks upon as

companion animals are treated very differently in Korea.

Many Koreans still believe that if one eats dog meat from dogs that have

been tortured to death, it will make them more sexually active. The

marketing of dog meat as a health food was initiated and perpetuated by

the dog meat dealers to keep their billion dollar businesses going. The

rationale behind savagely beating a dog to death lies in the

primitiveness that when a dog is beaten they produce high levels of

adrenaline hence the selling of their meat as a kind of " natural " viagra

for impotence and vitality!

This adrenaline rush is achieved by hanging dogs from ropes on trees and

leaving them to slowly strangle to death, and then while still alive,

their fur is blowtorched off.

Cats do not hold any position of affection in Korean society. They are

not eaten as dogs are but many attempts have been made to eradicate

them, not by humane methods, but rather by beating the animals to death

in sacks or, in some cases, boiling them alive in large pressure cookers

to supply the insatiable demand for another " herbal " remedy – although

clearly animals do not fall into this category.

The Korean government does not enforce its animal welfare laws so people

make an assumption that farming dogs, slaughtering them and selling

their meat is legal. It is not. The sale and cooking of dogs is illegal

under Korea's food and sanitation laws.

 

http://www.idausa.org/news/currentnews/activists_stage_bark_in.html

 

South Korea’s laws prohibiting the consumption of dogs and cats have

been routinely ignored and disregarded by law enforcement. Korea’s

Ministry for the Office of Government Policy Coordination announced in

January that it was to begin inspecting dog meat for sanitation, thus

giving dog meat its seal of approval. The Government promised that it

was backing away from this deplorable plan in February after being

inundated with thousands of letters, phone calls, and e-mails from

concerned citizens and animal protectionists around the world. However,

the Government is once again leaning toward supporting the Ministry’s

back door efforts to legalize dog meat.

 

Before dogs are killed for meat, they are often strung up by their legs

and beaten. Dog butchers extol the virtues of their product, linking the

adrenaline rush dogs experience as they are bludgeoned to death to

enhanced male virility. Cats fare no better—viewed as pest animals, they

are boiled alive so their “juices” can be extracted for supposed health

tonics which butchers claim can be used to treat rheumatism.

 

“It’s inconceivable that as the rest of the modern world is

strengthening animal protection laws, the Korean Government is allowing

‘man’s best friends’ to be boiled alive, beaten, butchered, and eaten

under its knowing watch,” says IDA president and founder Elliot M. Katz,

DVM.

 

For more information on IDA and its Korean Animals Campaign, please

visit www.IDAUSA.org. For more information on Animal Freedom Korea,

please visit www.animalkorea.org.

 

 

http://www.oozemagazine.co.uk/korea.htm

Scandal in South Korea

You may find this article extremely harrowing

It sounds mediaeval doesn't it, a country where dogs and cats, loved as

companion animals around the globe, are served up as a 'gourmet' food.

Yet this is the reality today in South Korea.

Many Koreans claim that eating dogs is a long tradition although others

believe that eating dogs only began as a result of the Korean war, when

starvation was rife. The popularity today has come about because dog

dealers and restaurants began to invent stories about the health

benefits to be gained from eating dog meat.

In order to meet the demand for dog meat (estimated at 2-2.8 million

dogs and cats per year), farms exist throughout the country to breed

these animals for slaughter. Dog meat, at £15 Sterling per kilo, costs

more than beef and is eaten more than lamb.

 

Dogs can commonly be seen in Korean markets being killed (hopefully) by

hammer blows to the head before being skinned. Sometimes the dog is

electrified instead, with electrodes fixed to the tongue. Yet another

favoured method is slow strangulation by hanging. The flesh is then

singed by a blowtorch to improve its appearance. On some occasions, the

animal remains alive throughout, eventually dying from shock. This is

all performed in full view of other dogs crammed in cages awaiting the

same fate.

The Koreans actually believe that the adrenaline released into the dogs'

bloodstreams by their sheer terror and agony will increase the sexual

potency of the consumer.

 

Shocking eye-witness testimony

 

Not surprisingly, photographs of this form of " slaughter " are difficult

to obtain. The following is an account from an eye-witness,

" The reason why dogs are beaten for so long is that there is a belief

that the slower & more painful the death is, the more potent the dog's

meat will be. Killing the dog slowly causes the dog's adrenaline to

flow, and this flow of adrenaline throughout the dog is believed to

increase the aphrodisiac power of the meat. While the dog is slowly

being killed, it is of course screaming in pain, and trying to resist

the grip of the man doing the killing. One method is to tie the dog from

his hind legs upside down. (All other accounts say that the dog is hung

from the neck). The man or men than beat the dog's body all over with

clubs or bats. Beating it this way is said to do two things. One is to

increase the flow of adrenalin and the other is to tenderize the meat.

" While the dog is being beaten, it gets to the point where it urinates

and defecates on itself, and the urine & faeces typically flow down the

dog's body, getting in its eyes and causing more pain. Eventually,

during this intensive beating, blood flows out of the dog's mouth and

nose due to internal bleeding, and it finally dies. This beating process

has no set time....It can be a few minutes or it can take an hour,

depending on the man doing the killing and how much he is into the

belief that beating it slowly is best for a quality aphrodisiac. I hope

this clarifies why the dogs are beaten first. In a large facility, the

dogs may not be hung by their hind legs. Instead the man enters the

large dog cage, selects the dog, grabs it, and while holding it by the

neck, begins to beat it in the head in order to crush the skull. Of

course, there are so many methods of beating the dogs because there is

no regulation on this. "

 

CATS

 

Although cats are eaten in South Korea, it is more usual for them to be

rendered into a " medicine " to treat rheumatism and arthritis. Unlike

dogs, cats are not bred on specialist farms. This would not be cost

effective when there are always starving strays. These are collected in

sacks and, if lucky, are beaten to death with either a stick or hammer

blows to the head. More commonly, they are boiled alive with herbs

(sometimes after having their limbs broken to reduce their ability to

struggle) until their flesh liquifies. The resulting " liquid cat " (known

as " Goyangi soju " ) is then sold in small sachets. An average size cat,

when cooked with dates, herbs and chestnuts, will produce 20-25 of these

sachets.

 

Shocking Eye-witness Testimony

 

The following is an eye-witness account, reported to the Korean Animal

Protection Society (KAPS) by one of its members, Miss Mun Juyoung.

 

" While passing by the Kyoung-il Health Food Restaurant, Miss Mun looked

in through the window and saw a middle aged women walking slowly among

the rows of hissing and boiling cauldrons. In her arms she held a cat,

who seemed undisturbed by the water on the floor or the stream so thick

in the air. Stopping at one of the hot kettles, the women sniffed once

and dropped the cat in to the boiling water. Hideously scalded by the

boiling water the cat screamed and clawed its way out but, the

blank-faced woman, pushed it back in the water with a stick over and

over again until the cat finally lost consciousness. The woman fished it

out once more, the cat mewing and whimpering in pain, whereupon the

woman pushed it back in for the final time. "