Posted on 06/30/2002 5:51:46 AM PDT by csvset
Dog meat hot among Korea and China's trendy young
Animal-rights activists say it is a food fad fuelled in part by a desire to rebel against Western criticism
By Ng Hui Hui
CANINE cuisine is becoming a fad among the young in South Korea and China, much to the dismay of animal-rights activists.
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| The cruelty in the handling of dogs during their slaughter has raised the ire of animal-rights activists. Strung by their necks, the dogs are beaten to death. |
Restaurant owners and dog-meat watchers confirm that youngsters are now taking dog meat as part of their regular diet - much like beef or chicken - as food joints dish out trendy new recipes to whet appetites.
According to one estimate, 92 per cent of men and 68 per cent of women above 20 in South Korea have tasted dog meat recently.
In China, dog breeders are saying that in a few years, there will be as many Saint Bernard dogs on the mainland as cows and sheep.(?)
Although past data on dog-meat consumption is not available, those concerned say the numbers would have been low earlier - since dog meat was considered a type of tonic for the older generation, eaten to increase libido and treat illnesses.
Catering to the fad, on sale now are hotdogs with real dog meat, dog cookies and sandwiches and even dog noodles as restaurants come up with fast-food variations.
Traditional recipes such as kimchi, a spicy fermented vegetable dish, are being given a make- over and are now prepared with dog meat extracts.
Dog meat chefs hope to add more varieties soon.
South Korean nutritionist Ahn Young Geun, who wrote a book titled Koreans and Dogmeat, has come up with more than 350 new recipes.
The professor, who is often referred to as Dr Dogmeat, believes dog-meat consumption should be increased because it offers three times more calcium than other types of meat.
Besides the nutritional value, nationalistic pride seems to be playing a part, said Ms Kyenan Kum, founder of the animal-rights group International Aid for Korean Animals.
About 2.6 million dogs are killed yearly for food in South Korea, Mr Louis Ng, president of Singapore-based Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), told The Sunday Times.
This is a 30 per cent increase over the 1993 figures.
'Eating dog meat is a show of defiance, especially among rebellious young people. They feel that the West has no right to criticise their culture,' he said.
Reflecting this sentiment, a group of students from Seoul University set up a website recently to promote the virtues of dog meat and secured 11,000 signatures in support of its campaign.
But it is the cruelty in the handling of dogs - man's best friend in the West - that is raising hackles among animal-rights activists.
Dogs are usually strung up by their necks and beaten repeatedly to increase the flow of adrenaline in their flesh. Consumers believe the more pain the animals suffer, the more tender the meat becomes.
The dogs would struggle, howl, urinate and bleed till they become unconscious. Finally, they are chopped into pieces. All these are done in front of other dogs awaiting the same fate.
Now, for the first time, an Asian grouping called Asia Link - made up of 14 animal welfare societies from 12 nations - has decided to join the protest and has sent a letter to the South Korean government urging a ban on dog meat.
Said Mr Ng of Acres, an Asia Link member: 'The Koreans say eating dog meat is part of their culture, but one cannot use culture to justify violence.'
Mounting criticisms made South Korea and China ban the trade for short periods in 1988 and 1999 respectively. But that has not kept South Koreans and Chinese from hankering for their dog burgers and dog noodles.
KOREAN CUISINE: Dog dishes
New dishes:
Hypocrisy for eating cat and dog never entered my mind. Just because I hadn't eaten them before and had never considered it while in the US, it didn't seem hypocritical to eat what was common in that part of the world. Half the time we had no idea what we were eating. It's not like you can order off a menu you understand.
When submitting expense reports back to my husbands company, we named the one place where we ate alot, "The Don't Ask Cafe", partly because we didn't know the name of the restaurant in English, and partly because my husband's translator had told us it was better not to ask what you were eating.
We found very few restaurants where English was spoken, or you could get a fork (LOL, I'm awful with chopsticks.) Sometimes a Chinese business associate would take us out to eat and order the meal. I wouldn't think of insulting him by quizzing him on what the stringy meat in the dish was. We, as a family, accepted the adage, "Eat what's set before you", at least while on the trip.
In Guangzhou we never saw a dog as a pet. But from what folks in other parts of China have told us, they do keep dogs and cats as pets. They do not eat dog and cat in all parts of China, just certain provinces.
So how do you feel about the wild horses from the American West going to Europe for human consumption?
I never would agree to the torture of animals before slaughter,whether they were pigs, cattle, horses or dogs for that matter. Do you have the slightest idea what a Kosher kill is? Do you even know how pigs are slaughtered and dehaired? Do you know how France gets its horsemeat? Have either of you been to a slaughterhouse? Any slaughter of animals has an inhumane content if you really get down to the heart of the matter.
My statement was simple with no animosity, animals destined to die in the US would be at least have a purpose and usefullness to humanity if they were shipped as a food source overseas. However, this will not happen and the landfill will be where most of these animals will end up. Does that seem an useful and worthy expenditure of animal life?
I put animals to sleep at the humane society because I know that the limited monies of the society that is not sent by bleeding hearts will be spent on getting some of the animals out of that wretched place. What are others doing to help the situation besides sitting by the computer flaming those that have the guts to get off their butts and do something? Have either of you critics been to your local humane society and helped out?
A veterinarians primary purpose is to improve the health and quality of life for humanity through the improvement of health and care of animals.
The former Attorney General of Tennessee once told me that it is useless to argue with the uninformed. This is all I have to say about this matter on this thread.
I hate it, if that is indeed going on. It doesn't surprise me... But I didn't just start hating the horse meat market because you said so... I hated them already for the betrayal of trust that brings them their main source of stock.
If indeed? No if about it. Las Vegas Review Journal did a big report on it several years ago. Here's the really nifty thing about it. They're killing and processing the horses here in the United States.
Currently, three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in the United States are killing horses for human consumption. They are BelTex Corporation in Ft. Worth, Texas; Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas; and Cavel International in DeKalb, Illinois. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 55,776 horses were slaughtered in 2001, up from 47,134 killed the previous year. Presumably, the numbers are increasing as a result of the decrease in beef consumption abroad due to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), or "mad cow" disease, and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
http://www.saplonline.org/Legislation/ahpa.htm
But here's the thing. It's not just wild horses, it's the domesticated ones as well.
I'm thinking "mote in one eye, beam in another."
Got veal?
Nutria or Capybara?
Dog is a fine meal, and Mountain lion is a delicacy!
So many cats - So few recipes!
This black market horse trade is hidden from most Americans, and the industry, realizing the close bond people have with horses, wants to keep it that way. Claude Bouvry, owner of a Canadian slaughterhouse said, "...people in the horse-meat industry don't like talking about slaughtering horses for food because of the horse's almost mythical place in western culture."
FRAUDULENTLY ACQUIRED HORSES
Judy Taylor of Kentucky sought help in caring for her two beloved Appaloosa horses, Poco and PJ, due to her own serious health problems. At the recommendation of a friend, she contacted Lisa and Jeff Burgess who agreed to provide that care, with the understanding that if they were unable to continue doing so, the horses were to be returned to Judy. Despite this agreement, within seven days of receiving the horses, the Burgesses sold them to a known “killer buyer” for $1,000. (Killer buyers act as middlemen for the slaughterhouses, indiscriminately buying horses without concern for the horses’ origin or condition.) Soon after Judy discovered what had happened, she frantically set off on a cross-country search for her fraudulently acquired horses.
Eventually she learned the horrifying truth – her horses had been slaughtered for their meat. Judy was successful in bringing charges against the Burgesses. The Kentucky Court of Appeals said "the Burgesses' conduct clearly rises to the level of being outrageous and intolerable in that it offends generally accepted standards of decency and morality, certainly a situation in which the recitation of the facts to an average member of the community would arouse his resentment against the actor, and lead him to exclaim, 'Outrageous!'"
Theft and fraudulent acquisition aren’t the only illegal activities used to supply the market
with horses for slaughter. Documents obtained from the Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for protecting America's wild horses, show that federally protected wild horses have been sent to slaughter for years despite a law against such abuse. In the early 1950's Velma Johnston, better known as “Wild Horse Annie,” began a campaign to protect wild horses from slaughter because of the cruelty she witnessed first hand. Her work culminated in the passage of The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 that stated in part, "It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.... "
Irresponsible owners seeking an easy and profitable means of getting rid of their animals provide the slaughter industry with additional horses. Still others are purchased at auction, where equines have been found for sale who are sick, sore, lame, disabled, blind, and pregnant. Many are accepted for sale without a "Coggins test," which screens for exposure to the deadly Equine Infectious Anemia, or a general health certificate. Killer buyers and slaughterhouse operators would like you to believe that all of the horses they slaughter are old and past recovery and have arrived there legally. In truth, many horses may be sick or injured because of neglect, but could recover with appropriate care and veterinary attention.
A BRUTAL END
Currently, three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in the United States are killing horses for human consumption. They are BelTex Corporation in Ft. Worth, Texas; Dallas Crown in Kaufman, Texas; and Cavel International in DeKalb, Illinois. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 55,776 horses were slaughtered in 2001, up from 47,134 killed the previous year. Presumably, the numbers are increasing as a result of the decrease in beef consumption abroad due to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), or "mad cow" disease, and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
In addition to the horses killed in the three US-based plants, thousands more are transported under deplorable conditions across our borders into Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered. Horses are often transported for more than 24 hours without rest, water, or food, while unprotected from weather extremes in thin metal-walled trailers. Sick and/or injured horses frequently are forced onto double-deck trailers that were designed for short-necked animals including cattle and sheep. Following years waiting the US government approved substandard regulations aimed at improving the conditions in which horses are transported to slaughter.
Once at the slaughterhouse, the suffering and abuse continue unabated. Often, horses are left on tightly packed double-deck trailers for long periods of time while a few are forcibly moved off. Callous workers, using long, thick fiberglass rods, poke and beat the horses' faces, necks, backs, and legs as they are shoved through the facility into the kill box. Due to extreme overcrowding, abuse, deafening sounds, and the smell of blood, the horses exhibit fear typical of "flight" behavior – pacing in prance-like movements with their ears pinned back against their heads and eyes wide open.
While Federal law requires that horses be rendered unconscious prior to having their throats slit, recent documentation shows that repeated blows with captive bolt pistols are often necessary, causing excruciating suffering. Horses writhe in the holding stall (known as the "kill box"), legs buckling under their weight after each traumatic, misguided and ineffective blows to their heads. Death is not swift for these terrified and noble animals.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Many of the horses sold into slaughter have been abused and neglected. Be sure to
report all instances of cruelty to your local animal control office.
Please report stolen horses to local and state authorities. The Internet also has numerous websites for posting or looking for stolen horses. These sites allow individuals around the country to share information and photos.
Do not sell your horse at an auction, a majority of the horses at auctions are bought by “killer-buyers.”
Please consider the following options:
Oppose the callous over-breeding of sport and pleasure horses so that older, injured, or surplus animals will no longer be viewed as expendable.
Please write the Secretary of Interior opposing the Bureau of Land Management's overzealous wild horse round-up policy. Federally protected wild horses are being slaughtered everyday because too many are being removed from their land.
That gives Islam a leg up across the third world, for the latter forbids dog and pig meat as food.
Better that than chupacabra.
I know... That is the betrayal of trust I bemoaned above when I said " I hated them already for the betrayal of trust that brings them their main source of stock."
The thing that really pisses me off about it is the horse people that think when their horse is too old to work, this is an acceptable way to put them down. It is not, by any stretch. I think we get a lifetime of willing service from horses because at some point someone said "trust me". Those horse people are the first on my target list, and the place where I spend my energy arguing at the moment.
My 22 year old horse will never be betrayed in that way. There are many that do not get the same respect, and deserve it just as much as my Bay.
And no, veal doesn't particularly make me hungry, but I can't be an advocate for everybody.
Those opposed have peed around the edges of the problem, banning transport of horses in double-decker trailers designed for cattle, and things like that, but they exist because people sell their horses to them. Mostly old ones, but some young ones. They all hurt me, but the old ones really rip my heart out.
I have been to these sales, went religiously to every one in our area for awhile, helping a friend to find an old horse he sold and wanted back because he feared this is what had happened to her. How I got out of there without buying the lot is more a function of ability than any good sense. If they'd have taken my check, I'd have written it, just to get those old guys out of there.
So true. I worked for Monsanto on the bovine growth hormone project. Scientists working on the farms began hiding their favorite cows when the truck came to take them to market. I was amazed and asked one scientist about it. He said the cows are just like dogs if you spend the day with them all week long. A significant number of the scientists on the project stopped eating beef.
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