In most advanced countries, dogs have a special status as socially integrated workers and companions that precludes them from being eaten. This is an outcome of cultural evolution, a process that leads to complex moral values and greater concern for other sentient beings. Regardless of cries of cultural imperialism from dog-meat proponents, advanced societies have evolved to view dog eating as morally reprehensible and even uncivilized. Sometimes it is easy to see why.

A group of old men in their 80s tried to beat a four-month-old puppy to death, bashing it about the head, breaking its skull and jaw. This is not a story about ignorant peasants at a mountain village in post-war Korea. No, it happened recently in modern-day Seoul. The Korea Herald reported in June that a kindergarten worker stopped the men, who said they wanted to eat the dog and “didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing.” Who else in Korea is comfortable with beating an animal to death? What could give rise to such casual brutality and insensitivity to animal suffering? For one thing, an inhumane dog-eating tradition.

Dog-meat advocates tend to evade cruelty issues by appealing to tradition. They say dog eating is a part of Korean culture as if that somehow makes it sacred and beyond reproach. These traditionalists even see dog eating as synonymous with nationalistic pride, and they have been known to go out and eat a bowl of dog soup just to teach those pesky protesters a lesson. But citing culture is an excuse, not an argument. It is irrelevant to what is wrong with animal abuse or subjecting farmed dogs to a life of fear and deprivation in tiny, feces-encrusted cages. No tradition justifies suffering and cruelty.

Another standard dog-meat defense is to say that it is hypocritical for people to criticize dog eating yet eat other animals. Why eat pigs and not dogs? Such an argument only works in the abstract. What is wrong with dog farming is also wrong with other animal farming, so comparing one disgrace to another is no argument. The comparison also ignores abuses only dogs suffer in Korea, such as being tortured to death by various methods. You rarely find people hanging up a pig and beating it to death with a stick for a nice picnic lunch. The livestock comparison, in the end, comes down to no more than one opinion against another. And it completely fails against vegetarian critics who object to the eating of any animals.

Other claims in favor of dog eating are just fallacies based on ignorance. One example is the propaganda that dog-meat dogs are a special breed made just for eating, as if intended by nature. This nonsense appears to be good enough for shallow thinkers wishing to ease their conscience. But a dog is a dog no matter what breed it is. And besides, any kind of dog can end up as dog meat, including former family pets betrayed to dog-meat traders.

Dog meat is also alleged to have health properties. It’s easy for peddlers of traditional medicine to get rich by inventing myths that appeal to wishful thinking. No surprise, then, that dog meat is supposed to increase stamina and male virility. What does this say about Korean men who eat dog for stamina compared to those who don’t need it? But dog eaters suffer other inadequacies. They say that in summer they cannot do without dog meat for energy. Well, perhaps if they exercised a little, it would boost that flaccid physical condition of theirs. Dog eaters are certainly no champions of vitality over anyone else.

Ultimately, there is nothing to support dog eating other than a self-centered desire for another food choice. It is unnecessary, and its downsides reflect badly on Korea. But more and more Koreans are recognizing this and demanding higher standards of decency. The puppy-beating incident is an example, revealing a younger generation with ethical values opposed to the ill-treatment of dogs. Officials are responding too, with harsher penalties for animal abuse due next year.

What we see taking place in Korea right now is a cultural evolution of increasing sophistication and globalized modernity. More and more people are rejecting dog eating as an embarrassment and vilifying the old mentalities that condone its cruelties. One day dog meat is going to be banned because the majority of Koreans will agree that the suffering of dogs is not worth a bowl of soup and has no place in the modern world.

Stephen Bant is an animal rights activist and vegan who volunteers for Korea Animal Right Advocates. You can learn more about KARA at http://animalrightskorea.org.


No: It is a part of Korea’s culture


By Ann Yong-geun