IAKA/KAPS E-Mail Update September 26, 2003

Contents:
1. One Veterianian’s confession

2. Two related stories from sunnan

3. Members of the korean government “dine” at dog meat restaurant (includes information to contact the Korean government)

1. One Veterianian’s confession (translated by Yoon Choi)

A vet made the following confession on the message board of the Ministry of Justice home page after it was revealed that the Minister of Justice and the head of the Public Prosecutors Office had met at a dog-meat restaurant.

I hereby confess to having committed shameful acts in the past and I would like to offer my sincere apology for the things I have done. One day, a dog that had been hospitalised at my practice sadly died. The owner asked if I would take care of the dog’s remains. He didn’t wish to see the body, preferring instead to make his request via the telephone. It seemed as though he found the whole thing too much of a chore.

For myself, I felt at something of a loss. I wasn’t sure where I might bury the dog and I was also concerned that the body would decompose rapidly in the hot temperatures prevailing at the time. Then my assistant Mr. Yun came up with an idea. He said we could simply telephone the dog-meat restaurant.

So I did telephone the restaurant, and within about ten minutes a young man on a bike arrived. He swiftly weighed the dog and declared it to be three kwan (One kwan is around 3.75kg). He then counted out and handed us 15,000 won. He told me that they bought dead dogs at a rate of 5,000 won per kwan. He added that if a dog were still alive (even if only barely so), they would pay as much as 8,000 won per kwan.

*Note that a normal medium size yellow dog in a dog market would average Korean won 250,000 ($210 to $250).

And so it was that, at that moment, a vile ‘trade’ was born. Even when a dog was at the last stages of terminal cancer, or had suffered from a chronic pneumonia, if the owners abandoned them, I would hand the animal over to the dog-meat restaurant. Some days, I sent as many as 7 dogs to the restaurant. They asked me to supply cats as well. They explained that if they mixed it all up, no one would realise it was cat-meat. I was young and not that well off at the time. I suppose I did these things without thinking too much about my conscience. But I saw at first hand how diseased dogs are turned into food. Even if the body was already partly decomposed, the restaurant was still prepared to take it. For me, it seemed at the time to be a convenient way of disposing of all the dead animals from my practice. Looking back, however, I now realise I was guilty of promoting a quite evil trade. I was not the only vet sending rotting bodies to the dog-meat restaurants, however. I believe many other vets in the big cities dealt in dead and diseased dogs in a similar way during the mid 1970s. Only the culture of secrecy among all those involved prevented the truth from being revealed to the general public.

This kind of dog meat is called ‘Zbusi’ in Japanese. It was Zbusi that went into the stomachs of dog meat lovers. These diseased dogs had been treated with all manner of drugs and antibiotics that would obviously be toxic to anyone who ate them. Ironically, given that dog-meat lovers ate this type of food specifically as a “health food”, it would not be in the least bit surprising if they went on to develop diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes.

I have since given up my job as a vet and am now committed to living an honourable life. However, I still feel very ashamed of my past conduct, and I would like to take this opportunity to offer my apologies to the public. On occasion, I would even recommend euthanasia to a dog-owner simply because their animal’s condition looked slightly complicated. I would then sell the body to the restaurant. By my actions, I was a lesser being than my victims. How can I ever be forgiven for this kind of conduct? I genuinely wish I could now ask for all of the dogs’ forgiveness.

Dogs are wonderful creatures. They couldn’t even contemplate doing the dreadful things that I did. Their very nature is to always be honest, faithful and trustworthy companions to people. Contrary to popular custom, likening a person to a dog should actually be regarded as a compliment.

After reading my shameful confession, I hope other vets who have committed the same dreadful acts will also come forward in the same way. Our collective sins cannot be forgiven by confession alone, but at least we may prevent someone else from committing the same sin as us in future.

We believe this confession will be a powerful tool in our campaign to end the eating of dog-meat, and it should also help us promote the cause of animal protection legislation generally. Indeed, if I were ever to meet up with the vet who made this confession, I should like to thank him for his courage.

2. Two related stories from sunnan (translated by Yoon Choi)

I would now like to tell you two stories about sick and injured dogs being sold to or killed for dog markets:

1. I once found a large dog in my neighbourhood that was suffering from a serious skin infection, literally from head to toe. I felt so sorry for the dog that I started to bring him food. He was always pleased to see me and would wag his tail eagerly whenever I approached. I soon began to agonise about how I might help this dog further. There was no place available in the shelter where the dog could be separated from the other dogs - although the owner would have been happy to give the dog over to me if I had offered some money. Would it be right to rescue him - just to put him to sleep? One day, I went to see the dog but he was missing. I asked the owner what had happened to the dog and he told me that he’d sold it to a dog-meat trader. I was shocked to hear this and asked him, incredulously, “They bought a dog that was suffering from a severe skin disease, literally covered with pus?” He replied, “Of course. I didn’t get much money, but it’s good that they took care of the dog.”

2. On another occasion, I discovered a neighbour’s dog that had been left in an extremely unhygienic environment. He had no shelter. He was tied in a corner of their garden and didn’t even have a place to sit, as the whole area was covered with a mixture of mud, night soil and rainwater. The dog was pitifully thin and clearly malnourished. He looked rather like Hong had done - prior, that is, to being rescued from Kwang Ju. I told the owner, “Animals feel hunger, too, and they dislike a dirty environment. Can you not treat him better?” She replied, “It’s OK. I’m going to sell him to the dog-dealer soon.” I told her, “It’s not right for you to send a former companion of the family to a place where they will meet with a cruel death. You should not even think of doing such a terrible thing. If you find it difficult to feed him, then I will look after him.”

She was having some financial difficulties at the time and had been receiving some assistance from me, so she readily agreed to my suggestion. I discovered an empty shed in her garden and cleaned it out thoroughly. I put in an old quilt and moved the dog into the shed. At least he now had some shelter from the rain. Also, the door could be closed to keep him warmer in the bitterly cold weather. As the months passed, I brought him food every morning and evening and I kept his environment clean. Eventually, the dog started to put on some weight and his coat actually began to shine.

Because the dog’s fur was yellow in colour, I decided to call him “Yellow”. Every time I approached the house, he seemed to know that I was near and he would look out and give me a cheery “smile”. I would often wave to him in turn and shout, “Yellow, I’ll bring you some food later.” Naturally, our bond increased over time and I’m sure he looked forward to seeing me as much as I looked forward to seeing him.

One Sunday morning, I brought him his food as usual and then looked on as he eagerly devoured it. Later that day, I received a phone call. It was his owner. She said, “What on earth did you feed him this morning? He’s been vomiting blood and is now dead”. I ran straight to the house. He had, indeed, died after vomiting yellow liquid and blood.

Although I was in a state of shock, I could still work out what had actually happened. A few days earlier, the owner had told me that her brother would be taking the dog. I’d told her that she should never allow this to happen. I promised her that I would give her money for the dog and so she should leave the dog where he was.

When she said her brother would take the dog, I realised it meant that they would either sell the dog to a dog-meat trader or they would kill the dog and eat him themselves. Because she still felt obligated to me, she could not easily sell the dog without my permission. But her family and relatives would have realised that they could get a lot of money for the dog now that he had gained weight and looked healthy. They obviously planned to sell him during the summer months when the demand was greater. People used to claim that dogs that had died of poisoning could still be eaten as long as the internal organs were removed, and that their bodies could therefore be sold to the dog-meat traders. I could not accuse them of this, of course, as I had no evidence. It was, however, very easy to work out the real cause of the dog’s death. Even as I was still mourning his death, the owner asked me “Who could possibly have done this?”

I responded by telling her that, as I had developed affection for him, I would bury the dog myself. She was quite insistent, however, that she and her brother would bury him. This proved to me beyond doubt that they had killed the dog. If someone else had killed the dog, they would have been only too glad to hand this responsibility over to me. Instead, they were adamant that they wanted to perform the burial. Clearly, they wanted to either sell or to eat a dog that had died of poisoning.

Some people will opt to sell their dead dogs to the dog-meat dealers. Others choose to bury them on a mountainside. When a dog dies away from its home, and with no obvious cause, it’s quite likely to have died of poisoning. The dog dealers often dig up the bodies and sell them on to a dog-meat restaurant.

Some time ago, my own family’s dog died after swallowing poison. We buried him on the mountainside. By the next day, his body had disappeared and, to this day, many other dog lovers continue to suffer the same experience. That’s why I always recommend to people that they should have their deceased pets cremated.

3. Members of the korean government “dine” at dog meat restaurant (translated by Yoon Choi)

Yet more material for our campaign is the meeting of the Minister of Justice and the Public Prosecutor General at a dog-meat restaurant.

Our society plans to send the photo of these two people together with this confession to the 272 Parliament members. The material will also be sent abroad. Unsurprisingly, there was no response to a direct appeal we made to them in August. Naturally, we didn’t actually expect any replies, but that will not deter us. We will continue to publicise any material that will help to banish dog and cat meat and, indeed, all forms of animal abuse. I have actually been asked not to send these materials abroad by those who argue that they constitute a national shame. Well, if our political leaders had any sense of shame or embarrassment, then surely they would already have tried to deal with this issue. Instead, their boastful, arrogant behaviour is tantamount to a nation spitting in its own face. Perhaps their own faces are already covered with so much “spit and dirt” that they can no longer feel any shame. Look at the faces of the Minister and his companion. Are these faces of people who readily feel shame?

To me, their conduct appears to send out the following message:

“People of Korea. Laws are not so important. It’s actually permissible to violate laws occasionally if you find them inconvenient. (Just like we do.) We’ll try to abide by the laws when we can, but we reserve the right to ignore them when they’re not convenient. If the other person likes dog meat, the best course of action is to eat it with them so as to make them happy. Leave your conscience at home for once. Swallow it if sweet and spit it out if bitter. That’s truly the fast track to success. Our drink still tastes good even when eating the flesh of the most loyal animals. So why not try it yourselves? We recommend it.”

This, then, is how our leaders urge us to adopt their disgusting habit. And the media, of course, will always cover anything that is controversial. The message will no doubt also spread abroad. There are many foreigners in Korea. They know more about the reality of animal abuse in Korea than most Koreans, and they invariably communicate the awful reality to the outside world. They have carried photographs of the cruelty of the dog-markets to the rest of the world even before we did. Similarly, the photograph of the Minister and the Prosecutor General will have gone out to the whole world by now.

Before I read the confession, I already knew that many vets carried on a secret trade with the dog-meat dealers, and many people had guessed what was happening. You may already be aware that some experimental laboratories have been known to inject all manner of dreadful diseases into dogs and yet still sell them on to the dog-meat dealers afterwards.

Please write, call, fax, or e-mail members of the Korean government and demand that they start honouring their own animal protection law and abolish the consumption of cats and dogs in Korea once and for all!

President Roh Moo-hyun
Blue House
1 Sejong-Ro, Jongno-gu
Seoul, South Korea 110-050
president@president.go.kr

Prime Minister Goh Kun
77-6 Sejongno, Jongnogu
Seoul, South Korea
m-opm@opm.go.kr

Prime Minister of Education
Yoon Deok-hong
776,Sejongno,Jungnogu Seoul, South Korea
webmaster@moe.kr

Minister of Justice Kang Kum-sil
1Jungang-dong, Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Prov, South Korea 427-760

Minister of Culture and Tourism Lee Chang-dong
82-1 Sejongno, Jongnogu
Seoul, South Korea 110-730
webmaster@mct.go.kr

Minister of Agriculture Kim Young-jin
1Jungang-dong, Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Prov, South Korea 427-760
wmaster@maf.go.kr

Minister of Health and Welfare Kim Hwa-joong
1Jungang-dong, Gwacheon Gyeonggi Prov, South Korea 427760
webmaster@mohw.go.kr

Minister of Environment Han Myung-sook
1Jungang-dong, Gwacheon
Gyeonggi Prov, South Korea 427-760 sojung@me.go.kr

Please note that they Korean government has a habit of disabling their e-mail address after receiving a number of protest letters. If your message gets returned to you, please consider faxing or writing that particular minister.

Sunnan Kum, Korea Animal Protection Society, 17th of September 2003