I want to start this blog by saying that I myself am an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian, which means I eat only fish,eggs and dairy products, no meat. I also want to mention that you should not research this topic any further if you don't want to see some pretty disturbing images of dogs being killed. I choose a friendly image for my picture because I didn't want to see any of the other ones ever again.
In Korea as in many parts of the world eating dogs is an accepted part of the culture. Generally the only two countries that have mainstream acceptance of this practice are Korea and China but in many countries there are cultural minorities who eat dog. This even happens in Canada to a limited extent.
One of the big differences about Korea is the way the dog is killed. It is believed that the more scared the dog is and the more it suffers before it's death the tastier and more "medicinal" the meat will be. In Korea dogs are beaten to death with clubs, hung slowly, burned and tortured in many other ways. The consumers of dog meat want to get the most adrenaline as possible into the meat and this is the way they go about achieving it. Dogs are also often made to watch as other dogs have this done to them.
It is believed that dog meat, called Gaegogi (gogi means meat and gae means dog) can give men extra sexual stamina. Since the dog meat industry is a billion dollar a year industry in Korea one must assume a lot of Korean men need this stamina.(I couldn't resist saying it) The meat is prepared in many different ways. Their are traditional stews,soups and barbecues. The meat is also made into fermented drinks that can include the penis of the dog for an extra "medicinal" energy supplement.
I have known many foreigners here who have tried eating dog for the experience and several who do it on a regular basis. I don't think I would eat dog even if I ate meat, but that is easy to say since I don't.
I also know that cats are eaten in Korea in a fermented drink too. They are also killed very inhumanly,usually they are stuffed in a sack and then beaten to death against a wall and then liquefied into a drink. I don't know much about this, just that it is done.
When you move to a foreign country you have to be willing to accept the cultural differences that arise but this is one I will not accept and will never just ignore. If Koreans want to eat dogs I have no more of an objection to it than to eating other animals. But they need to stop the extremely cruel way that these animals are killed and treated. On the other hand this is not much worse than the way chickens are treated in the US....
