‘Do Koreans eat dogs?‘ and Western hypocrisy

Published by

oegukeen

July 12, 2013

‘Do Koreans eat dogs?‘ and Western hypocrisy

How Koreans treat dogs — This is the horrible life Kimchi Man’s dog has :)

Having a Korean boyfriend means getting a few question asked over and over again, every time people find out who you are dating.

“Is he from North or South Korea?”. South of course. “Aren’t they really poor there?” You’re thinking of North again. “Are Koreans Buddhists?” Most are atheists actually, but there is fair share of other religions represented.

And of course, the unavoidable,

“Do Koreans really eat dogs?”

Now, other’s ignorance can be mildly annoying. But I am painfully aware of how many things I am ignorant about, so this is actually not the reason why that question annoys me so.

No, it annoys me because of the underlying criticism. It is a loaded question, with asker being ready to judge as soon as he or she hears the answer.

Now, as the situation stands, majority of Koreans haven’t tried dog meat. Even fewer eat it regularly. There is a large group of Koreans that is very strongly against eating dog meat. Then there is yet another group who doesn’t eat dog meat themselves but feel others should have the right to do so if they wish. And yet another group, albeit a lot smaller one, who believe it is an important part of Korean history and as such should be preserved.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the dogs they do eat are not pet dogs. It’s not like Koreans get hungry someday, see they forgot to stock the fridge and decide that their beloved pet would make a nice roast. They eat the so called livestock dogs, which are a different breed of dogs and are bred just like any other cattle humans eat.

But as far as the dog-eating itself goes, I have to ask, why not?

“Gasp!” you might say, “she promotes eating puppies!”

Not at all, I would never eat dog meat, but I know why not. What I am wondering is, do you?

Dogs are very intelligent you might say, they feel love, fear, pain, just like we do. They get attached to humans. Well, so do pigs. And did you know that cows have best friends, and if they get separated from each other they show signs of great stress? I bet you didn’t think you’re eating someone’s best friend.

Just in the 2011 U.S. exported 1.75 BILLION tons of pork and over 900 million tons of beef. Exported. That doesn’t even include the amount that was eaten there. Just compare that to 8,500 tons of dog meat that are consumed per year in Korea and you will see it is a staggering difference.

Of course, this is obviously not aimed at vegetarians, or people who are aware of the hypocrisy. It is aimed at those who say: “They eat dog meat!? How repulsive and primitive!” while chewing on their pork chop.

So why don’t I eat dog meat? ONLY because of the culture I’ve been brought up in. I view dogs as pets and nothing more, I would be unable to stop thinking of them that way throughout the whole meal and it would certainly ruin my appetite, if not make me downright nauseated. On the other hand when I bite into beef I don’t even think about where it came from, since it’s been presented to me as food since I was a small child. It’s nothing more than social conditioning. But to think that makes me morally superior to Koreans would take a very heavy twisting of reality.

Edit: 21th of July, 2013. All opinions and comments are welcome! However, please stay on topic. Any comments that are off topic will be removed from this point on.

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79 responses to “‘Do Koreans eat dogs?‘ and Western hypocrisy”

David Stewart

July 15, 2013

I’ve eaten dog meat on several occasions over here in Korea and like it well enough, although it tends to be quite greasy. Great points about the hypocrisy of differentiating between animals. Beyond social conditioning, there is really no other reason not to eat it. Now, where can I get some cat? :)

Reply
1. oegukeen
  
  July 15, 2013
  
  *hides her cat*
  
  Reply
  1. David Stewart
    
    July 15, 2013
    
    :)
    
    Reply
Brigit Pimm

July 13, 2013

This article deflects from the intense and deliberate cruelty and animal abuse inherent in the dog meat industry throughout SE Asia and especially in Korea. This is due to the belief that causing the dog/cat to suffer and fear before it is killed enhances the final ‘product’.
Dogs are crowded in tiny cages with their snouts bound. They are starved,beaten, hung, blow torched, boiled alive, roasted alive and cats are even cooked alive in pressure cookers. The evidence is all over the internet with a simple search for ‘dog meat trade’.
To the writer – you should be ashamed that you let your petty ‘annoyance’ prompt you to write such a shallow, ignorant article.

Reply
1. oegukeen
  
  July 13, 2013
  
  I am not ashamed at all.
  
  Great majority of people who oppose eating dogs are doing so purely on “moral” grounds and base it on dogs being pets. Actually, all of the people I ever talked to. For that reason I chose this aspect to write about.
  
  Treating animals cruelly and using them as food are two completely separate issues because both can be done one without the other.
  
  Also, West is not immune to atrocious treatment of pigs, cows, chickens, etc.
  
  Reply
  1. Brigit Pimm
    
    July 13, 2013
    
    ‘Great majority of people who oppose eating dogs are doing so purely on “moral” grounds and base it on dogs being pets” – How on earth would you know that? Have you done a survey??
    Your arguments are moral/cultural relativist bs the intention of which is to deflect. I do not eat any meat and am of the opinion that all meat eating inherently causes cruelty but any idiot can see that what goes on with the dog meat trade is as evil as it gets. Either you have not bothered to view the evidence or you have and are amoral.
    
    Reply
    1. oegukeen
      
      July 13, 2013
      
      Using more insults does not make you more right. If you are not capable of controlling your emotions and discussing this in civil manner I’m afraid I won’t reply to any more of your comments.
      
      If you didn’t kick out the next sentence when quoting me you would see that I am obviously talking about my own experience.
      
      I still see no reason why even those that eat meat couldn’t fight for humane treatment of those animals, including dogs.
      
      I am not ignorant about what happens to dogs, I am just aware what happens to cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc. I don’t know about you, but chickens lying in their own excrement because their legs have snapped underneath their own weight due to hormones they have been overfed with seems quite evil as well. And this is just tiny part of what happens in the US, and I assume in Europe as well although we may be less transparent about it.
      
      You seem to be very passionate about spreading vegetarianism, so if I may offer a piece of advice: attacking and insulting people will never make them change their minds. It will just make them dig in deeper.
      
      Reply
      1. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 13, 2013
        
        To suggest you are amoral is not an insult it is a valid supposition. I honestly am not that bothered if you choose not to reply. My intention is to put an end to the vile dog meat trade for the reasons i have laid out above. And the lame whataboutery you preach does not help with this. Your priority is for people not to judge Koreans – I think Koreans can fend for themselves. So I think your position is shallow and self-serving.
      2. oegukeen
        
        July 13, 2013
        
        Immoral might have been an insult. Amoral is not, I agree. But I wasn’t referring to that anyway.
        
        I hope your mission is a success and you manage to spare some animals from suffering.
        
        I do not see how asking people not to use double standards when judging other nations is shallow and self-serving.
  2. Brigit Pimm
    
    July 13, 2013
    
    Actually you clearly are just an airhead trying to write.
    
    Reply
    1. Brigit Pimm
      
      July 13, 2013
      
      In reply to your post starting with ‘Immoral might…’ (the ‘reply’ option is somehow missing…?) Its ‘shallow’ because your boyfriend is Korean and that’s why it bothers you – you are really just thinking of yourself. The expectation for everything to be equal and consistent in life is one of the great distractions of our age by the way – there are more important things to worry about.
      
      Reply
      1. xiaolongimnida
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        you forgot to reply on what the difference is in treating dogs bread for their meat and treating pigs and the like. You make it sound like dogs bread for their meat are treated worse than other animals, which is untrue. You really don’t want to visit a chicken factory, I BET…. I feel you are really just trying to attack and really have no consideration of what others write to you. This is not an intellectual debate this way, only shouting away. The writer of the article writes from her experience. How about you? Ever been to Korea, talked to Koreans?
      2. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        Dogs bred for meat are certainly treated worse than other animals – this is because of the food torture culture where there is the belief that causing the dog to be in pain and fear enhances the final meat product. So we are talking about boiling alive, beating to death, hanging for example. There is plenty of clear evidence for this all over the internet available with a simple search. There are laws certainly in the UK which would make such treatment of any animal very much illegal. I have not seen or heard of any evidence of this belief in torture would apply to pigs for example in the SE Asian countries in question though it wouldn’t surprise me if they were badly treated as they seem to have little in the way of animal welfare legislation at the moment unfortunately.
        Although I would agree there is cruelty involved in all ‘meat production’ the dog/cat meat is of the nastiest order.
      3. oegukeen
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        You are incorrect.
        
        Since 2007 South Korea has the law that has made what you mention (boiling alive, beating to death, etc.) illegal. Here is translation of the law by a volunteer. Article 7 seems to explicitly forbid what you mention.
      4. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        I am incorrect about what? If there are laws they are certainly not enforced at all. There are people in Korea this week who will be filming the evidence as it happens – it is very open. A documentary movie will be released soon – ‘Bokdays – Hidden in the Land of the Morning Calm’ it was screened at Cannes this year having been funded by various charities. Maybe that will be the proof you need.
      5. oegukeen
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        Even you have no idea what you’re trying to prove here.
        
        First you say cruelty happens everywhere, but at least the UK has laws against it. Then I tell you that there are same laws in S. Korea and now what?
        
        You should watch Food Inc. It’s already out.
        
        I am not the one that needs proof. I never claimed there is no cruelty towards dogs.
        
        From the beginning of the post, to every last comment I have written here, I have claimed only one thing: We shouldn’t use double standards.
        
        If after all this you have not got that, I’m sorry, but I give up.
      6. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        Not all ‘cruelty’ is equal. You know that anyway. Why do you keep removing the reply option from your posts? It’s made the debate read like chaos…
      7. oegukeen
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        For the last time, I am not removing anything. There is a default limitation of how many comments can appear nested. Web page has limited width.
      8. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        Look if it makes you feel any better I agree ‘We shouldn’t use double standards’. But when you write a piece about the dog meat trade and that’s your main worry – your priorities are wrong and you are sending out the wrong message. I hope you get that.
      9. oegukeen
        
        July 15, 2013
        
        I never wrote about dog meat trade
      10. spraypaintedsoul
        
        July 18, 2013
        
        i agree with brigit pimm strongly. also i’d like to point out the dogs that are used in korean/chinese/vietnamese cooking ARE pets. many have their collars on when they arrive at slaughterhouses. my bestfriends dog was STOLEN from her backyard. many of these animals are rounded up off the streets where i live, in thailand and put in tiny crates (10 dogs per single cage) and tied to trucks and then without food or water taken to country of choice for slaughter.
        
        what happens is very cruel.
      11. oegukeen
        
        July 18, 2013
        
        Where did you get this information that Koreans eat pet dogs? How do you know the pet that was stolen is to be eaten? Maybe they have collars for other reasons. Could you please link to the source of your information so I can read it?
        
        This is a wikipedia article about the so called Korean yellow dog that are used for food as opposed to “white dogs” and “black dogs”. Not only that, but Koreans actually think that yellow dogs taste better.
        So why commit crime to steal something that tastes worse than dogs that are actually raised as livestock?
      12. spraypaintedsoul
        
        July 18, 2013
        
        i volunteer to save street dogs in thailand with soi dog foundation and i have seen with my own eyes that the dogs are pets.
        
        also many courtcases detail pet dogs having being stolen.
        
        i find it quite hypocritical that you are telling commentors not to generalise but how can you generalise that all koreans prefer a certain type of meat i.e. yellow dog.
        
        if you are interested in actually researching what you’re preaching about – check out soi dog foundation and the illegal dog meat trade. :)
      13. oegukeen
        
        July 18, 2013
        
        Thailand is not Korea.
        
        I am not generalizing, I am just recapping what I read in wikipedia article.
        
        I am not preaching anything, except to judge Koreans with exactly the same set of standards that you judge your own country.
      14. spraypaintedsoul
        
        July 18, 2013
        
        wikipedia is very unreliable as far as sources go, as anyone can edit it to any extent they wish.
        
        thailand is not korea, correct, thailand is also not consuming the dogs. korean/chinese/vietnamese companies fund illegal rounding up and 14hour truck drives of dogs from thailand because its cheaper than raising their own dogs for consumption.
Lola

July 12, 2013

My Korean boyfriend told me that he’s eaten dog before, in a soup. It doesn’t really matter to me, because it’s all based on one’s cultural perspective. I just thought it was interesting.

Reply
Marina T. 真理菜 (@Mandarince)

July 12, 2013

No, never! But I live vegan, so eating any animal is not acceptable for me, I don’t care if it is chicken, pig, dog, living beings held like that and tortured just for our 10 minute pleasure is simply one of all those selfish things humans are doing to other species on this planet.

Reply
1. oegukeen
  
  July 12, 2013
  
  I’m glad you make no difference and treat all animals equally.
  
  Reply
  1. Marina T. 真理菜 (@Mandarince)
    
    July 12, 2013
    
    Oh wow, I’ve totally missed on “Do Korean guys date vegetarian and vegan girls?” ~ *uns to read the article* ^^
    
    Reply
Lisa

July 12, 2013

Very well presented, and I couldn’t agree more. :)

Reply
1. oegukeen
  
  July 12, 2013
  
  Thank you. Glad I’m not alone :)
  
  Reply
myvikingboyfriend

July 12, 2013

My grandmother would never eat chicken because she grew up on a farm and knew the chickens her family kept (and would eventually eat.) She saw them as pets and couldn’t get past that even as an adult, although she had no similar issues with beef or pork.

Reply
1. oegukeen
  
  July 12, 2013
  
  Yeah, it’s just all about our perception of the animal, which is probably formed while we are growing up.
  
  Reply
  1. Brigit Pimm
    
    July 14, 2013
    
    I disagree – it is not simply all about ‘our perception’.
    Although I do not eat meat personally it is still valid to understand the animal kingdom as fitting into a kind of hierarchy of sentience. An ape has a high level of sentience for example and a mollusc is down at the other extreme of probably having very little in the way of sentience at all.
    
    Reply
    1. Brigit Pimm
      
      July 14, 2013
      
      Hypothetically for example, if I had to choose between killing a pig or a chicken I would choose for the pig to live. My reasoning would be that the pig probably has a higher level of sentience due to its bigger brain. One can also observe animals’ behaviour. We can never know what it is like to be another species but we can make educated judgments based on the facts.
      Writer of the piece – I would say you are over-simplifying.
      
      Reply
      1. xiaolongimnida
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        your reasoning is pretty invalid. So it’s OK to eat no-so-smart animals but we shouldn’t eat smart ones? LOL. That’s like saying a mentally disabled kid is worth less than a healthy one. If you are protective of animals, what does it matter if the animal is smart or not? And if you don’t care, the brain size also doesn’t matter. It REALLY is coming down to how you grew up. If you grow up seeing your parents are vegetarian, most probably you won’t eat meat youself, even as a grown-up. I grew up i a small village where it was pretty common to eat horse meat too in a sausage form. A few years ago a fellow ‘villager’ brought horsemeat sausage to my workplace and our city-dwelling colleagues, who have no problem munching away on large chunks of pork or beef, were utterly terrified. It’s a matter of what you got used to. If you grow up in a community where eating dog meat is considered normal, chances are you won’t mind eating yourself. Other communities eat worms, snakes and the like. The French eat frogs. So what?
      2. oegukeen
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        You said this very well. People do in general feel more empathy the more the creature is intelligent, but every person draws their own line what they would eat and these lines are pretty arbitrary.
        
        But I chose the example of pig and dog precisely because they are around the same intelligence, so that argument really is invalid.
        
        The example of cow and horse is also a good one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the cow was actually the more intelligent of the two.
      3. xiaolongimnida
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        Not to mention that nobody asks the horses if they want to be rode or not and being hit with a stick to run faster… :) or wether dogs like to be on a leash and walked around whenever the owner feels like. Or weather parrots like to be kept in cages. And the list could go on and on and on.
      4. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        Regarding the subject of dogs versus pigs I would agree that they are probably of a similar level of sentience and that the double standards applied to these animals has to do with the fact that pigs have not generally been kept as pets. Anyone that has a cat or a dog for example eventually comes to the intuitive realisation that they are actually dealing with a person – similar in sentience to a small child. Hence the Western gut reaction to the idea of eating – and therefore killing – dogs and cats. Most people would not be able to fluently articulate the reason for this reaction.
        The reason people do not see pigs and cows in this way is because most people do not have the opportunity to interact closely with these creatures and come to the same realisation. Therefore I would say the double standard is based more on ignorance rather than willful hypocrisy. As Paul Mccartney says – “if slaughterhouses had glass walls we would all be vegetarian”.
        But my interest is not in any East/West divide, comparison or controversy or hypocracy.
        The cultural reasons for the openly and unremittingly savage treatment of the food trade dogs and cats (and probably other animals) in SE Asia I cannot fathom. I just know it has to stop.
      5. oegukeen
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        Well, since you’ve finally agreed with everything I have said in this article, may I suggest that you stop wasting your time commenting on the blog of two people who have never done anything to dogs apart from treating them with utmost dignity and actually use that energy to go find people who do torture animals?
        
        Right now it just seems you are trying to prove you are morally superior, instead of actually helping those poor dogs.
      6. Brigit Pimm
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        The word ‘intelligence’ is yours not mine. We as humans are used to thinking of ‘intelligence’ in terms of ‘cleverness’ or ‘IQ’ – which is not what I refer to. I use the word ‘sentience’ which is more to do with the level of actual consciousness a given creature possesses. To go back to an extreme example I would say it is reasonable from what is scientifically known so far to say that a mollusc is not that much more conscious than, say, a plant. So I disagree – it doesn’t “REALLY come down to how you grew up” at all.
        I wasn’t brought up as a non meat eater btw.
        It is true that culture can obscure your view of the animal cruelty around you. In ‘the West’ we have many laws against animal cruelty but we allow ourselves to be lied to concerning the level of ‘humane’-ness of the meat and dairy industry. However, this does not let ‘the East’ of the hook – not at all. China for example has no anti-cruelty laws at all – and you can tell.
        When is comes to the suffering of other highly sentient beings my chosen attitude is not ‘so what?’.
      7. oegukeen
        
        July 14, 2013
        
        Oh come on. Who is saying East should be left off the hook?
        
        The only thing this article claims is that one should not have double standards. It does not suggest what those standards should be.
        
        As far as I can see, you are the only one here who is trying to impose her own standards on others.

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