YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT KOREA. Eating dog meat in Korea is "officially" illegal BUT the dog that is eaten are raised in kennels. In Korea, cats are strays (not dogs) and are kept around to reduce the rat population. Your insult is as bad as the PC you are digesting.
WORLD ANIMAL DAY JUST ANOTHER DEADLY DAY FOR DOGS, CATS
TORTURED, KILLED IN KOREA More than 2 million dogs brutally beaten, hanged, electrocuted to death every year; cats thrown screaming into cauldrons of boiling water suffer slow, agonizing death
OAKLAND, Calif. – October 4 has been designated World Animal Day, because it’s the feast day of the Patron Saint of all animals – Saint Francis of Assisi. St. Francis, born in 1182, in Assisi, Italy, loved all God's creatures and called animals his brothers and sisters. This love and respect is celebrated on his Feast Day, and World Animal Day is intended to commemorate that, and call attention to the plight of animals all over the world.
Different countries and cities honor World Animal Day in different ways. In Rome, stray dogs are temporarily spared from the city's dogcatchers and offered free bones from the meat shop. In Beijing, more than 100 volunteer animal protectors are organizing events to encourage people to adopt dogs and cats. In Australia, World Animal Day has been set aside to recognize the important role that pets play in people’s everyday lives.
But in Korea, World Animal Day will pass just like any other dreadful day for the thousands of dogs and cats that will be tortured and slaughtered for food – all because of mythical “health” claims made by the dog-meat industry. Against all scientific evidence, many Koreans continue to believe that dog-meat stew (boshintang) enhances male sexual potency and that cat juice (goyangi soju) alleviates rheumatoid arthritis and neuralgia.
To achieve these nonexistent health claims, dog and butchers go to extraordinarily cruel lengths. Raised in rural farms or urban backyards, dogs spend their entire lives in cramped wire cages, where they suffer from dehydration and hunger, exposure, filthy conditions, and abuse. Then they are tortured to death – by hanging, being bludgeoned with iron pipes or hammers, or getting electrocuted. A blowtorch then is used to burn off the dog’s hair and brown the skin, sometimes when the dog is still alive.
Dog butchers believe these violent methods of killing tenderize the flesh and improve its aphrodisiacal quality by stimulating the release of adrenaline in the tissues. The more the dog suffers, the more flavorful and beneficial the meat is thought to be. Similarly horrendous methods are used to kill cats. Many feral cats are trapped in wire cages, thrown into sacks, and smashed repeatedly on the ground until they die. Domesticated cats are often dropped, alive, into a cauldron of boiling water and slowly boiled to death.
Dog-meat stew is not a thousand-year-old Korean tradition, as dog-meat dealers claim. The sudden commercial trade of dogs for consumption began in 1980, when a boom in the Korean economy made the once-scarce “livestock” meats suddenly affordable. At the time, the dog-meat trade consisted of only a handful of dealers, who, fearing loss of business, quickly marketed the myth that dog-meat stew is a traditional “cure-all” health food.
International Aid for Korean Animals is a registered 501 (c) (3) charity in the U.S. that raises international funds for Korean Animal Protection Society. As sister organizations (literally – the two charities are run by sisters Kyenan Kum (IAKA) and Sunnan Kum (KAPS), IAKA raises funds and promotes awareness within the international community, while KAPS provides animal rescue and welfare services and lobbies for legislation to end the torturing, slaughter, and consumption of dogs and cats in Korea. They are the only two groups that focus exclusively on the plight of companion animals in Korea, and neither receives any support from the Korean government.
KAPS conducts educational drives urging Koreans to have compassion for and learn how to properly care for animals; works to advance legislation that respects the well-being of animals; engages in community outreach efforts that teach children a humane ethos through ongoing humane education programs; and, through the shelter, provides unwanted, abused companion animals with a safe, caring environment. IAKA has mounted an international campaign to pressure the Korean government to enforce current animal protection laws, and to enact and enforce stronger legislation, which would outlaw the cruelty and consumption of dogs and cats in Korea.
To learn more about the plight of Korean animals, please contact IAKA founder Kyenan Kum, at 510-271-6795 (phone), 510-451-0643 (fax), or iaka@koreananimals.org , or visit our website www.koreananimals.org .