Quote:

QUOTE: Its just not sanitary and its torturous but have enough money for Nukes, etc. Its like they have lost all compassion and have no morals. They are gone. END QUOTE

But unless we approach them where it hurts (in the wallet) by addressing the Korean Tourism people and the ambassador, then all we are doing is dismissing it or forcing Koreans to jump on the defensive. I want results. I think we get results with calm (if we can be calm; it's very very hard to be calm about this) but serious communication with the Koreans who care what we think and whether we will make this a reason to cut off our tourist dollars.

to be terribly honest, I don't plan on going to Korea or any of those places where the people as a majority are to far fetched from our way of thining here. You will NEVER catch be buying a ticket to go visit China, Korea, Jordon, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, any of those places.

I don't either. That didn't keep me from writing to both agencies as a POTENTIAL tourist!

Greetings,

This is heart breaking. I am currently stationed in Korea and I have made several tours down at the city markets. I have heard the stories as well, but to be honest with you, I have not seen any dog at the butcher shop or in the market square (Thank God for that). Dog meat is a delicacy and it is expensive. I will not buy it and I haven't seen it on the menu. Of course I don't read Hongul, but the menus in English, I have not seen it yet. One thing we have to remember is that this practice is part of their culture. The Korean people see no wrong or harm in what they do because that is all they know. I don't agree with it, but I am not from this culture. I can tell you that MOST dogs that I see while driving across Korea are not kept up and cared for in a pleasant way. When I go to another close by Army Post, I see a small cage with just enough room for these two German Shepherd dogs to stand. There is no flooring, so the dogs are standing or laying on the metal cage for their entire life. I am not sure how often they are let out but I can tell you that they have physical problems because of this. I talked to a guy that stopped to buy (rescue) one of the pups that the female had. He bought one just to get the pup out of that situation. It took the pup 2 months of being pampered and light exercise before the dog could even run. Most dogs here in Korea are kept in this fashion or they are chained up on a small chain to their dog house. It is unfortunate for a dog lover like myself, to have to see this life style while over here. The good news is, I am over half way done and going to Germany!!! This will be a complete change and I am happy to accept it.

QUOTE: I am currently stationed in Korea and I have made several tours down at the city markets. I have heard the stories as well, but to be honest with you, I have not seen any dog at the butcher shop or in the market square (Thank God for that). Dog meat is a delicacy and it is expensive. I will not buy it and I haven't seen it on the menu. ....... One thing we have to remember is that this practice is part of their culture. The Korean people see no wrong or harm in what they do because that is all they know. I don't agree with it, but I am not from this culture. I can tell you that MOST dogs that I see while driving across Korea are not kept up and cared for in a pleasant way. When I go to another close by Army Post, I see a small cage with just enough room for these two German Shepherd dogs to stand. There is no flooring, so the dogs are standing or laying on the metal cage for their entire life. END QUOTE (Quote is not complete)

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Oh, man..........this is what I feared, and hoped was not true. I was letting myself believe that the horrendous back-street markets were the exception, with cages filled with stacks of near-death but living dogs......

Still, we can do what we can do. We can write to the appropriate officials en masse and individually and demand that the incredibly cruel slaughter-deaths of animals used as food be ended. I can't write it off as something we can't address.

If anyone wants the email addresses of the Korean ambassador and the tourism department chief, I'll be happy to PM, and I'll be happy to supply the letter I composed and sent, too, with the OK to use it.

THANK YOU to those who have PM'd me asking how to send messages to the Korean ambassador and the tourism organization!

THANK YOU!

First off, I didn't go to the site because I'd rather not see animals suffering right now. I've been to the pit-bull fightings sites, and seen the pictures of thousands of dead dogs being piled up at animal shelters across the U.S and it is just plain depressing. However, some of the comments on this post are rather frightening. Particularly, the second hand information that is being espoused hear reminds me of how Ed warns about the wealth of bad information on dog training out there.
I lived in Japan for 5 years, speak Japanese fluently, and I have travelled extensively in China (which is better known for serving dog than Korea) and studied East Asian culture extensively. In China, their is a delicacy called the 100 year egg which is a boiled egg that is buried in the ground and aged for "supposedly" 100 years. In actuality, it is only done for several months. The egg turns completely black and has a very strong, almost offensive smell. However, it tastes pretty good. They serve it in Japan as well, but mainly at Chinese restaurants. As for the snakes being served in Thailand, that is hardly a big deal. We serve Snake here as well. It tastes like fish, and as far as I am concerned it is about the same level animal as a fish. I highly doubt that they skin the snakes alive. Perhaps they chop off it's head but it is still moving from firing nerves as they skin it. If I saw such a sight while travelling in Thailand I might be tempted to change the story to "they skinning em alive" to make for a more sensational story.

As for the dogs in SOUTH Korea, I know this much. When I first went to China I confessed to my boss, who was Chinese, that I was worried I might be served dog meat. She laughed at me and proceeded to explain how it is a delicacy that is very expensive, extremely uncommon, and hard to find. I know many Koreans and people who have lived in Korea and none have ever seen dog served. The video showing people torturing them to elicit flavor sounds incredibly suspect, and even if it is occuring it must be a fringe segment of society and not where the majority of people (which make up a minority of the people) go to taste the pricey delicacy of dog meat.

As for the "they have enough money for Nukes," comment, I believe the site above was referring to South Korea, not North Korea. They are 2 different countries and what goes on in North Korea can only be speculated. I can't speak for all Military bases, but the ones I saw in Okinawa were pretty large and far away from markets, towns and neighborhoods so the daily dog beating sounds like a tall tale to me.
As far as not wanting to visit the places listed below, that is just plain narrow minded and I would be embarassed to have such a limited world view. The one thing that is most telling about the human race is that wherever you go people are basically the same. As amazing and beautiful as the myriad of differences between the cultures of the world are, the one thing that stands out more is the similarity. So before you go drawing conclusions and making statements based on hearsay, maybe you should try to learn about and experience the topic you are speaking on.

QUOTE: In Thailand you can walk into the butcher n they have live snakes there, they kill them by skinning them when you come in to buy one. My dad was doing business in Japan a lil while back n its a Japanese delicacy to hard boil an egg, then leave it for I believe 20-30 years till it's nice n black, then eat it.
QUOTE: Its just not sanitary and its torturous but have enough money for Nukes, etc. Its like they have lost all compassion and have no morals. They are gone

QUOTE: to be terribly honest, I don't plan on going to Korea or any of those places where the people as a majority are to far fetched from our way of thining here. You will NEVER catch be buying a ticket to go visit China, Korea, Jordon, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, any of those places.

QUOTE: My friend's son just got back from being stationed in Korea. He said that every afternoon they could hear the dogs being beaten. Apparently beating them in some way makes the meat better. This practice is definitely still going on.

I had read and seen enough in still photos; I also didn't go to the site with the videos.

I did spend a lot of time researching this before I wrote to Korean officials. I was very skeptical; I get more than my share of snail mail from animal-welfare organizations, legit and not, to believe everything I read.

And when I wrote to the tourism organizations and the ambassador, I did so in a completely non-confrontational way, mentioning that I was aware of animal atrocities committed in this country as well, and asking that they join the people who want to try to curtail these atrocities WORLD-WIDE.

I try extremely hard not to be xenophobic. Also, I agree with you that these frightening practices are almost certainly in the tiny minority, but I want to address it as an issue that exists everywhere (as, for example, in the pit-fighting arenas right here in the U.S.).

I commend you for your world-view and your dismay at knee-jerk dismissing of other cultures.

But again, I did not write to the Korean officials without doing about six hours' worth of hard research, tracking down actual reporters and complainants via email and telephone, and without being as convinced as I can be without going there myself that what I was writing about was valid.

Well, I didn't have any issue with what you were writing Connie. Although, you might want to go there and see because you might be hard pressed to find these places (much like the guy who wrote in that is living there now).

Also, South Korea is not like some small Carribean company whose GDP comes primarily from Tourism. Boycotting tourist travel doesn't sound like something that the South Korean government would be particularly worried about.

If this really is going on you might want to try other avenues. But it's great that you are trying to do something about it.

Thanks, Matt. I do what I can with what I have! Good point about the tourism industry, and I appreciate it.

I think its more of a cutural thing. LIke in China where it is communist they are a severe dictatorship and people aren't like here. The regard for human life is not as high as here. You have no rights. So an animals to brainwashed minds is non existent. Something like a dog is like a problematic insect here..If it dies or suffers its no big deal......