San Franciscans to South Koreans: Stop Eating Dogs and Cats
Categories: Animals
 |
| Eating your pets is just plain unsavory |
In Defense of Animals, a international nonprofit, will deliver 15,000 signatures tomorrow, asking the South Korean government to crack down on illegal dog and cat feasting in parts of that country. The group will meet at the South Korean consulate in San Francisco, followed by a rally at 11 a.m.
"The majority of people in South Korea do regard cats and dogs as companion animals, yet there is still a segment of the population that eats dog meat," says Hope Bohanec, spokeswoman with the nonprofit.
Some two million dogs and thousands of cats are consumed in South Korea on a yearly basis, says Robin Dorman, campaign manager for In Defense of Animals.
While it's now technically illegal to eat dogs and cats in South Korea, the government has not been good about enforcing the laws, thus allowing the tradition to continue in parts of the country, Dorman says. So killing dogs and cats is illegal, but the processing and sale of the dog and cat meat is not, she added.
"The law is deliberately obscure," Dorman says.
This is the seventh year the IDA has worked with Korean animal activists to deliver the message about cat and dog consumption. It seems likely to have more of an effect on the younger generations, who want to be more like Westerners, Bohanec tells us.
"They know we don't eat cats and dogs, but these things are slow to change," she says.
Read more on SF Foodie about what dogs and cats taste like. Good dog, bad kitty.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
Write Comment
Email to Friend
Print Article
