Alpha wrote:I think I'd be pretty fuckin' pissed if I were Korean.
In Korea, man's best friend is also a controversial meal
By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and Stripes
Stripes Sunday magazine, March 31, 2002
Dogs await buyers at a Korean food market. Many Koreans believe the low-fat, protein-rich dog meat can help patients recover from surgery and help stimulate the sex drive.
In the Moran Market in southeast Seoul, a warm, wet animal smell drifts among the cages crammed with clucking chickens, quacking ducks and bleating geese.
But the market is known for its most controversial product — dog meat.
The dogs are docile, hardly uttering a peep, staring between thick steel bars. They are confined together, about eight to 10 to a 25-square-foot cage.
Soon, these dogs may be mixed with garlic, onions and a blend of hot spices for poshen-tang, or dog meat stew.
Koreans love dogs as pets. And some love to eat them, too.
The country, which currently is in the international spotlight as it prepares to co-host the World Cup soccer tournament this June, has come under much scrutiny for its canine cravings. Comedian Jay Leno recently poked fun at the practice, and French actress Brigitte Bardot has lambasted the country.
In South Korea, a country with fierce nationalistic pride, the debate over dog meat goes to the core of its traditions, where its culture clashes with the West.
"When you go to France, you know they have frog legs?" said 60-year-old Kim Yong-kil. "I don’t like it. It makes me feel sick, but they [the French] think it’s good. Here I eat dog, and they say ‘no good.’ They never understand our custom."
Pro-dog eaters say the practice goes back hundreds of years. Opponents accuse dog merchants of inflating false claims of virility and increased strength from eating dog meat.
Many Koreans and Americans want no part of it.
"I would refuse to eat dog meat," said John McSweeney, a civilian who has worked in Korea for five years. "I’ve had dogs in the family so they sort of become part of my life. I enjoy dogs. I don’t like to eat them."
Kim Hye-yong, a 48-year-old civilian employee, said she tried the meat once, but saw dogs in the Moran Market and won’t eat them now.
"I couldn’t figure out why people like it so much," she said. "There was nothing special about it."
The debate is not likely to end soon. The National Assembly, Korea’s legislative body, has considered a bill to classify dogs as livestock, to make it a more regulated industry like beef cattle.
Under the bill, the government could better control the conditions in which the dogs are kept.
Dogs fall under Korea’s Animal Welfare Act but they do not fall under livestock slaughter regulations, said an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, who requested anonymity.
"We have no plans to block or prohibit the dog meat, and also we don’t have any plan to push the consumption of dog meat," the official said. "At the moment, we just watch the matter."
Eating dog meat was banned in South Korea around the 1988 Olympics, but the law isn’t enforced. Dog meat restaurants flourish in the back alleys of Seoul, with customers paying between $4 to $7 for steamed dog or dog soup.
The practice is mired in male machismo. Women rarely eat dog meat; the most frequent customers are older males.
Office workers pool money and go to the dog meat restaurants occasionally in a male-bonding ritual that includes soju drinking, Korea’s potent traditional rice wine.
Many Koreans believe dog meat helps patients recover from surgery, a belief promulgated by doctors who advise patients to ingest the low-fat, protein-rich meat. Dog meat is also thought to stimulate the sex drive.
Restaurant patrons need not worry: The fear of accidentally nipping man’s best friend at a Korean restaurant is rare.
Dog meat restaurants are not common. The entrée must be sought out, and is expensive compared to beef or pork. Korean restaurants would not serve it by mistake because of the stigma.
Many Koreans become wary when asked if they eat dog. The international criticism has affected their consciences, but hasn’t stopped them from posing relatively logical defenses, such as pointing out that Europeans eating horse.
The practice might make mores sense if Koreans were not such fervent pet lovers. Everywhere in Seoul, lively furry friends abound, with doggy eyes beaming under owners’ arms and poking from backpacks and coats.
Koreans say dogs raised for food are different than dogs raised as pets. At Moran Market, most dogs raised for food are a yellowish, sturdy breed that resembles a small husky.
"That meat is food, not a pet," said Park Nam-chol, a 46-year-old base worker. "A pet is totally different. It [the meat] is like a horse, like a pig."
Dogs are pulled from their cages by their necks with long poles with nooses on the end. The dogs writhe and whine while they are either electrocuted or strangled. The other dogs cry together, hair standing on end.
Sometimes dogs are beaten in the belief that it enhances the meat flavor. Their hair is often blowtorched away because people enjoy the cooked skin.
Because of the recent controversy, foreign visitors — especially journalists asking questions — are shunned. One vendor at Moran Market slapped away a camera while shouting expletives, while others made it clear no pictures were to be taken of caged dogs.
Kyenan Kum, who founded the Korea Animal Protection Society, said the Korean government has little interest in the welfare of animals. The dog industry is about money, she said.
"These people don’t care," Kum said in a telephone interview from Oakland, Calif. "They are indifferent. To me, all dogs are the same."
Kum has picketed Korean embassies in other countries to protest its animal policies. Kum said she worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the early 1990s, educating the Korean public about humane animal treatment.
Others, such as Ann Young-geun, are openly advocating dog eating despite the world criticism. Ann, a professor at Chungcheong College in Chongju who has a Web site with doggy recipes, has been dubbed "Dr. Dogmeat."
Ann said reports of dogs being beaten before death are false.
"They would have to pay someone to do that," Ann said.
He said he has embarked on the dog meat propaganda campaign because he believes the meat is good for health. He added that he doesn’t want to see the government hassle dog meat restaurateurs.
"Americans look at their country as being culturally superior and look down on Koreans," Ann said. "They are raising discrimination."
Miri Kiehm, who works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said she remembers eating dog soup in elementary school with her siblings and enjoying it. Her father, 76-year-old Kim Sung-il, came south from Hamhung, North Korea, during the Korean War.
Her father likes a plain dog soup with few vegetables, North Korean style. But Kiehm said she doesn’t eat it anymore.
"When I was little my mother said she gave me the dog," Kiehm said. "We said ‘It’s so good, give some more.’ But after I grew up it’s hard to try because we have a pet dog. We had a German shepherd. Somehow I couldn’t eat."
Her husband, Bob, remembers seeing dog carcasses, skulls and fangs when he first came to Korea in 1977. Since then he has acquired a love for the "gamy" taste, he said.
"In essence, you are saying dog is man’s best friend in more ways than one," said the 60-year-old government employee.
Democrats... snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, daily!
slap my salmon, baby
