South Korea hopes to cull its dog meat trade, but the tradition will linger on for a while yet

A pack of wary-looking dogs abandoned by their owners wandered across the barren wilderness.

A captive audience inside a cinema watched as the cartoon dogs meandered through the overgrown woods of the demilitarised zone on screen. Although the furry characters in the animated film Underdog were fictional, viewers were moved by the sad but hopeful story of stray dogs in South Korea.

After the screening, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon stood before the crowd and pledged to eradicate South Korea's notorious dog meat trade from the capital.

"In the past, we had several dog butcher shops in Cheongnyangni (a northern region of Seoul), but I closed almost all of them down through various measures," Park told attendees, according to the Korea Times.

"Currently, one or two dog slaughterhouses remain. I cannot force them to go out of business, so I will put pressure on them to move."

In recent times, South Korea has made multiple efforts to cull its long-standing and often-criticised tradition of dog meat consumption, leading to speculation that the industry may be on its last legs.

During the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics, the government requested restaurants in the region to stop serving dog meat dishes amid an outcry from activists and visitors, as Western media shone a spotlight on the practice.

In November last year, the government bowed to pressure from animal rights activists and shut down the Taepyeong-dong complex, a dog slaughterhouse located in Seongnam city, south of Seoul. Electrocution equipment, de-hairing machines, wire pens and knives were found in the facility, which critics condemned for its inhumane conditions.

In 2017, South Korean president Moon Jae-in famously adopted a former stray dog named Tory, which had been rescued from a dog meat farm a few years before. It was a popular move that helped spotlight the issue of animal abandonment and the need for adoption.

"About one million animals find new owners, but 300,000 are abandoned each year," Moon said at the time, according to Yonhap news agency. "We need to pay more attention to abandoned animals and care for them as a society."

Dog meat has long been consumed as a traditional healing food in South Korea " often served in dishes such as bosintang, or dog meat stew, and popularly eaten during boknal, the three hottest days of the summer. It is considered a delicacy and priced at 15,000 won (US$13.30) per serving or more, compared with samgyetang, or chicken soup, which costs around 8,000 won per bowl.

A dish of dog meat is served at a restaurant in Seoul. Photo: AP

As in other dog-eating countries in Asia, dog meat is seen as a jongryuk or "stamina" food that enhances male virility in deeply patriarchal Korea.

"It isn't just elderly people who eat dog meat. Those who undergo plastic surgery are often recommended by doctors to have it," said Taehoon Lee, journalist and co-director of Dog Meat Professionals, a 2017 documentary about dog meat consumption. "Many Koreans, even doctors, believe it is good for healing wounds and recovery after surgery."

Overall demand for dog meat, however, has plummeted over the years.

South Korean animal rights activists campaign against the country's culture of eating dog meat in Seoul. Photo: AP

According to a 2018 survey by animal activist group Last Chance for Animals, 81.2 per cent of 1,000 people surveyed said they had never consumed dog meat, while 18.8 per cent reported they were consumers of dog meat products, and 1.2 per cent said they consumed dog meat dishes each month.

Although all signs point to a shrinking dog meat industry, experts say social and legal changes in South Korean dog meat culture will be slow to come.

"I am sceptical that shutting slaughterhouses in Seoul would lead to a significant change in the welfare of these dogs. Butchers who used to slaughter dogs in Seoul are now slaying them in neighbouring cities that have lax supervision," said Lee.

"At least in Seoul, dogs are put down quicker and in a less painful way due to constant monitoring by animal activists and local authorities.

"People shouldn't be deluded by minor changes. The dog meat industry is much bigger than many think " it is estimated to be a billion-dollar industry."

Although neighbouring China and Vietnam also continue the practice of dog meat consumption, South Korea is the only nation in Asia where the dog meat market has become industrialised, and where dogs are farmed on a regular basis.

In China, official figures are difficult to obtain given the illicit nature of the industry, but experts at SPCA Hong Kong estimate up to 10 million dogs per year are killed and consumed for their meat.

"A lot of the research suggests there are no farms, they're merely warehoused in holding facilities housed in illegal ways," said Fiona Woodhouse, deputy director of welfare at SPCA Hong Kong.

"The whole issue in China is how are these animals sourced, handled, transported and then eventually slaughtered.

"There's a lot of social disharmony and illegality to the trade," she said, adding that the situation in Vietnam is similar.

Caged dogs being transported on the back of a motorcycle in Vietnam. Photo: Reuters

"They do have dog meat farming in Korea. But in other parts of Asia, the trade is based around stealing dogs, or picking dogs up from the streets," Woodhouse said.

In South Korea, Korean Animal Rights Advocates estimates that up to 1 million dogs are slaughtered for consumption each year.

Experts say this is a strange and confusing time for the dog meat industry as South Korea confronts its traditions in an increasingly globalised world.

Animal rights activists protest against South Korea's culture of eating dog meat in Seoul. Photo: AP

"The old ways where dogs are used for guarding farms from predators, are still practised by many people in rural areas," said Gina Boehler, director of Korean K9 Rescue, a non-profit that rescues dogs saved from the Korean dog meat trade. "While in most cities, depending on the family, they are indeed viewed as family members."

However, she adds, unwanted family pets and pet breeding dogs can end up at the meat markets. "It's a billion-dollar industry, the mothers and fathers live horribly with no vet care, the dogs are inbred," Boehler said.

"These two industries " meat farms and puppy mills " work together. When the mother or father cannot breed any more, they move to the dog meat farm."

For the younger generation, the practice is beginning to fade, with pet ownership increasingly on the rise. About 10 million people out of the nation's population of 51 million own a pet, according to a 2010 survey by the South Korean ministry of agriculture. Dogs were by far the most popular choice of pet, the data showed.

"It is true that fewer Koreans are eating dog meat, and more people raise dogs as a pets," said Taehoon Lee. However, he said most Koreans were wary of cultural judgments towards these traditions.

A 2018 report showed that 37 per cent of people in South Korea surveyed were against the idea of legislation that would ban dog meat consumption, according to Korean data firm Realmeter.

"Many Koreans, including non-dog meat eaters, find it wrong to prohibit dog meat consumption. They don't want outsiders or laws dictating what they can eat or cannot eat."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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