Seoul City is conducting sanitation inspections of dog meat restaurants, leading to fears in some circles that the inspections represent a first step in the eventual legalization of dog meat.
Of course, long-time readers of this blog know my position on the matter — you can have my bowl of dog meat soup when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
52 Comments
do u beat the dogs in bags yourself? or do u have a particular restaurant that beats them “your way, right away”?
just curious. i’ll stick with american beef for now.
I love how the people who are against dog meat consumptions prevent the very legislation that will prevent the animal abuse involved with some boshintang restaurants.
I hope this is a positive step towards legalizing (and therefore regulating) dog meat industry.
i wholeheartedly agree. im not against the eating of any meat; regulation in this industry is needed. but if it’s enforced the way every other law is in Korea, then I wouldn’t expect things to change, legal, or not.
I was thinking, would anyones opinion change if the senetence was:
“I hope this is a positive step towards legalizing (and therefore regulating) the sex industry. ”
If they can do one why not both.
“…but if it’s enforced the way every other law is in Korea, then I wouldn’t expect things to change, legal, or not.”
Exactly. There’s a boshintang restaurant on every other street around my neighborhood. Legalize it, don’t legalize, it doesn’t matter: the people will continue to do what they do, and government will let it go on.
Depends on whether the restaurant in question uses wood or aluminum…
I’m with ya, Robert. I had a good laugh at that documentary they showed on Korean TV two weeks ago, where they brought the little dogs out - you know, the sort of (abandoned) little purebreed dogs that Koreans claim they never eat. Stupid things were wagging their tails at the very dudes who were about to be kill them! Thinking they were about to be set free from their hot little cages! Animals that stupid deserve to die a slow and painful death! When they started hanging them up and beating them nice and slow, so they’d taste better, I thought, mmmm…good. The blow torch method always strikes me as more fun, but I guess they were too squeamish to show that. Wussies! But wouldn’t you know it, the Korean TV viewers got all sentimental and complained…Jeez.
But seriously:
If you think Korean dog-meat providers are going to stop torturing dogs because of a rule or two, you’re dreaming. Dog meat must be made this way, according to dog-meat eaters. The best way to keep the cruelty to a minimum is to keep dog-meat with the stigma of illegal back alley 혐오 food for ajosshis.
Legalize dog meat. Legalize the sex industry. While you’re at it — legalize marijuana and other drugs. Let people make their own choices and be responsible for those choices.
Personally, I’m all for the legalization of boshingtang restaurants. There is nothing wrong with dog soup. I’m not convinced, and most of my Korean-boshingtang-eating-friends are with me on this, that beating or torturing the dog before slaughter does anything, positive or negative, to the flavor.
In the last few years, however, I have seen a massive increase in the number of Korean people walking around with kebab, (or rat sized), dogs in their bags and purses. These diminutive and genetically questionable creatures are fed a constant diet of torture, angst and pain, until their little hearts eventually explode, and then, (I suppose, since I can’t see any other reason for their existence) are reduced to meat on a stick in the po-jang-mak-cha.
If the health department is going to stop anything, it should, IMHO, be the genetic sin of the creation of these creatures, and the moral/ethical sin of the abuse (care) heaped upon them.
“Let people make their own choices and be responsible for those choices.”
The laws against dog meat are inspired by other reasons than the laws against drug use and the sex trade, where all the players are in the position to make some sort of choice.
I’m curious if you’re against all laws against animal cruelty?
dog - its whats for dinner
“I’m not convinced, and most of my Korean-boshingtang-eating-friends are with me on this, that beating or torturing the dog before slaughter does anything, positive or negative, to the flavor.”
So the dog-meat providers are expending 20 times the time and energy to kill these animals slowly for what…for the heck of it?
Alejandro..way over the top with #7.
I’ve eaten dog meat before…and accept different cultures eat different food.
No need to watch the meat being tortured and mock the poor animals on a blog.
Neglect or willful mistreatment of animals prior to slaughter actually degrades the quality of the meat by making the pH either too high or too low, depending on whether the animal’s stress is caused by neglect (lack of food, water, climate control) or rough handling. Read details of a Purdue University Research study here. No point in presenting this science to those who think that unique Korean sentiments permeate their beef.
First of all, whether you like dog meat is beside the point. This isn’t a food issue. It’s a torture issue. If a food requires torture, it needs to be considered differently. Or do you think it’s okay to saw the heads of live monkeys if it’s a Thai thing? Or if you personally enjoy it?
Ignoring the torture is no better than ignoring the ethical problems of any other kind of behavior.
But if you really think I was mocking the poor tortured dogs and not the callous people who eat them, you probably aren’t going to grasp any of this anyway.
Some restaurants/farmers in the countryside claim that it’s traditional to “tenderize” the meat while the animal is still alive, releasing hormones and
“angrying” up the blood. Others claim that that’s bull crap, and normal slaughtering practices are just fine, producing a nutritious, healthy and delicious meat. Different strokes for different folks applies just as much when talking about Wei-gook / Han-gook perspectives as it does to Jolla-do Han-gook / Kangwan - do Han-gook relations, or any other province to province comparison/discussion/whatever.
Or so I learned, out there, around, in the country side. Just sharing what I’ve been told…
Sonagi -
Those facts are often disingenuously presented by the dog meat crowd itself, as if to say, “Why would we want to hurt them more than necessary?” But in fact the slow deaths are still the norm.
And I doubt, market forces being what they are, that they would be spending extra man-hours and thus extra money to kill these dogs slowly if it actually made the meat taste worse.
In rural areas of course the old folk still come out to enjoy the spectacle of the dog twisting in the wind, but I doubt if that’s the case in Seoul. Most dog meat eaters are like Baekdu Boy. They don’t wanna know.
Billy:
Don’t buy that “only torture in the countryside” line. Not even Koreans seriously deny that the torture is the norm everywhere. Odd to find expats ready to swallow a myth that Koreans only throw out to the tourists.
#15, You are right, I can’t grasp 10+ lines of sarcasm. If only I had the time.
“Don’t buy that “only torture in the countryside” line.” — Alejandro Marivosa
Sorry, who said that?
Billy: “Some restaurants/farmers in the countryside claim that it’s traditional to “tenderize” the meat…”
This carried to me the implication that restaurants/farmers in urban areas think differently. And they don’t.
In general, I’m in favor of laws against animal cruelty, but don’t know how to reconcile that idea with the fact that animals are delicious.
It’s the same with abortion. I am convinced the fetus is a human being from the moment of conception, and therefore morally speaking ought to be protected against being exterminated, but also think that abortion ought to be lawful. I realize that’s an inconsistent position, but in the face of confusion it’s probably best to err on the side of letting people be accountable for their own choices.
Do you have links to support that claim? The study is not well-known. I stumbled across it while researching nutrition. In nearly a decade in Korea and continued reading of Korean media, I’ve never heard it mentioned that mistreating animals or slow death damages the quality of the meat.
Yes, they would if they thought eating meat from beaten animals increased one’s stamina and if they’d never tasted meat from dogs or other animals handled with care. Even if the dogs aren’t beaten to death, it’s not like they’re just lazying around the field every day. Instead, they are crammed in cages and as seen in a home video linked at Brian’s blog, they are often hit by their owners just for fun.
You don’t have to if you eat pastured meats from small farmers. Once a month, I buy meats from a local farm. As I drive past cows, goats, and sheep lying under shady trees, I yell out, “Eat more grass! It’ll improve your Omega-3 fatty acid and CLA content!” While talking with the owner one day, I noticed a goat fenced off from the others, “She’s going to market tomorrow,” the owner explained in a hushed voice. Sadly, the superior nutrition of pastured meats isn’t available to you in Seoul now, is it, Brendon?
nice and timely post
just in time for 초복(初伏) tomorrow
but in my opinion, 보신탕(補身湯) is not really that good
I prefer 개고기 전골
lots of meat and innards and skin so soft and yummy
yum! yum! yum!
I used to be just an eater and did not really believe about the energy-from-boshintang-bullshit
but once, I had a bit of a stuffy nose and also my digestive system was kinda irregular (i am not hungry during meal times) and then i was invited to a 개고기 전골 feast. and lo and behold! my stuffy upper respiratory tract cleared and my stomach juices went back to its regular rhythm…
so now i am a full convert…
squeamish, dog hugging westerners, you do not have any idea what you’re missing…
Had that for lunch today, in fact. 싸리집 was packed!
“In general, I’m in favor of laws against animal cruelty, but don’t know how to reconcile that idea with the fact that animals are delicious.”
In other words, you don’t know how something pleasurable can/should be made illegal? O-kay….
Why does folk science carry so much more weight than real science?
People can eat rocks for all I care…But, I’d take American beef over a bowl of dog meat soup any day. People have been arrested in the past for selling lab animals to restaurants. Until you can assure me that the meat isn’t from a diseased or stray dog, I won’t touch it.
Why does religion persist?
Why do people still believe in invisible sky gods and demons from hell?
These and many other questions remain unanswered… but it has somthing to do with the two most abundant elements in the universe: Hydrogen and Stupidity.
(credit to whoever wrote that 1st, it was not I)
@8
…legalize pedophilia, legalize murder. Go anarchy…
@22
Freedom of choice is extremely important, so I’ve thought about such issues quite seriously. I think the line the law needs to draw is when the choices of one trample on the freedom of choice of others. Some times it’s obvious and sometimes it can be close to call. I’m not ready, like Spain, to give human rights to animals, but torturing them is morally objectionable.
Dog meat is illegal in Seoul? Could have fooled me. I guess thats the reason its 50,000won for a friggin bowl… .
50,000won for a bowl of it, if you consider say, one dog makes ten bowls you could literally just buy the dog from a pet shop and…. what a minute…
50,000 won a bowl? For bosintang? Must have gone up considerably since lunchtime…
going to get some tonight. Brandon Carr is right on!!
I nominate # 8 for President - and 22.
“That government is best which governs
least.” Thomas Paine
22– Maybe you’re making it more complex than it is. It ’s not too demanding to see to it that animals that humans eat both live and die in dignity. Until humans get this we’re spitting in ma nature’s face. There will be payback.
#30
the two most abundant elements in universe: hydrogen and stupidity
-Frank Zappa
I’m all for dog meat, however, I must qualify this; as long as they are under 30 months of age and grain fed. Beef flavored Alpo fed dogs are totally out of the questions as it seems the reprocessed beef would create a high likelihood of ‘mad dog’ disease.
The Marm likes to post about dog meat because it allows him to behave like a stubborn, immature troll.
These posts are like clockwork, though. I guess whatever Korean agency is paying him has a schedule for things like this.
@22 - At the risk of opening a whole new can of worms, when it comes down to it, don’t you think that it’s best to err on the side of “not murdering someone,” rather than on the side of some libertarian ideal of personal choice?
@41, colontos appears to be an organizer of Citizens Against Mad Dog Disease.
@30 Because when you die there needs to be a good reason not to recycle your meat.
I’m going off on a tangent here but if we care so much about the well-being of animals, isnt it strange that we consider bestiality to be a crime against nature yet we think nothing of it when we eat them? In no way am I saying let’s legalize bestiality but it begs the question: do you think an animal would rather be killed and eaten or molested? I guess we’ll never know.
I suspect that bestiality is illegal for the same reason sodomy and other specfic sex acts are illegal in some jurisdictions - because people perceive such sex acts to be immoral and disgusting - not because of any desire to protect animals.
Marivosa’s Law: The expatriate’s readiness to accept a given Korean custom, to say “When in Rome…” etc, to condemn critics of that custom as narrow-minded and parochial, is in inverse proportion to the inconvenience which that custom causes him personally.
Therefore the chuckling indifference to the deliberate torture of animals for the dog meat that many expats eat. This on a blog that usually gets pretty worked up about the different ways Koreans do things.
Possibly so.
It also allows me to ban commenters I don’t like. Such as yourself.
Commenter banned.
Re Brendon’s #8 and #22, you’re my hero now, bro.
In your honor, I’ve burnt a big Friday-after-work “cigarette.” (It took me until nearly midnight to finish the thing.)
Now it’s time to take my dear old dog out for his nightly 3-mile walk. (I’ve got bad knees, but I do it every night anyway because he likes it so much.)
My companion dog and I have no problem with people eating dogs that are raised for food.
Maybe it’s the scientist in me, or maybe it’s the “cigarette effect,” but I wonder if my dog would eat boshintang (or dog steak). What percentage of dogs would eat boshintang (or dog steak)? Maybe someone currently in Korea could do the experiment. Get a doggie bag the next time you go to a boshintang (or dog steak) restaurant. Take it home, and set it out in front of your real dog (not a toy dog). Does he/she sample the boshintang (or dog steak), or not?
“My companion dog and I have no problem with people eating dogs that are raised for food.”
You can talk about torture to these dog-meat eaters until you’re blue in the face; they will just keep pretending it’s a question of whether dogs should be eaten at all.
To simplify regulation of these industries, it might be an idea to combine them in some way.
One-stop shops.
#48
dogs will eat dogs if maybe they make it a “dog meal” or something, the same way that cows are fed bone meals (from cow bones of course)
My father has been a hunter all his life ( deer and rabbits ), which began while he was young out of necessity ( large poor family ) but he still gets his deer in season each year.
He, and all of his deer hunting buddies, are quick to point out that a “clean kill” ( meaning instantaneous ) results in the best meat. A wounded animal that runs and needs to be tracked, results in tougher, less tasty meat. He (unscientifically) believes that the adrenalin secreted by an injured animal is what causes the difference. Regardless, he and his friends seem to have no trouble tasting a “bad kill” compared to a clean kill. It is also why snared rabbits are less sought after than “shot” rabbits.
Regardless, unnecessary pain and suffering is the foundation of any discussion regarding morality. To live, we must kill, but anyone who believes it is alright to torture animals, best understand that they are an animal.
I wish all those who take pleasure in the torture of animals, a similar, slow and painful end with much time to contemplate the sad life you leave behind.