Re: Urgent: Korean dogs and cats need your help.
Dear Friends of Korean Animals,
We have received very disturbing and sad news from Korea. The Korean government is going ahead with their plan of legitimizing the dog meat trade through the introduction of a policy on the hygienic control of the dog meat trade. As you can see from the article below, the Ministry of Office for Government Policy Coordination has decided to implement a set of laws requiring hygienic management of the dog meat trade. This move will greatly encourage dog-eating practice and is effectively legalizing dog meat trade.
We have been working so hard against the dangerous definition of pet animals that could provide legal grounds for making distinction between pet dogs and food dogs. The Korean government consistently denied their intention of legalizing dog meat. We found it so strange that they would not accept our proposed definition of companion animals if they had no intention of legalizing dog meat. When the Ministry of Agriculture finally informed us they have dropped the definition, we thought that they finally showed some sense and had given up using the Animal Protection Law to help with legitimizing dog meat trade, the very cause of rampant animal abuse in Korea. When we found out that the Ministry of Agriculture wanted to reintroduce the definition of pet animals in the Amendment and that the Ministry of Office for Government Policy Coordination had held a meeting to discuss the hygienic control of dog meat, we realized that something was seriously wrong, but hoped that the Korean government would not so bluntly put the dog eaters' demands before national interests, even though we had little faith in their concern for animals.
We find it extremely disturbing that the Korean government is trying to associate their attempt to legitimize the dog meat trade, with protecting animals, by presenting their policy as a combination of protecting dogs and protecting public health and the environment. You cannot protect dogs while developing a policy to hygienically control dog meat. The latter is based on the assumption that dog meat is acceptable, thereby making worse the very cause of the senseless killing and torture of dogs for health myths. The Korean government has long argued that to reduce cruelty to dogs in the process of slaughter, they have to legalize dog meat. A lame excuse because, if they genuinely wanted to reduce the amount of cruelty to dogs, all they had to do was to strengthen and enforce the existing Animal Protection Law. Instead, in the name of hygienic control, the government is on the verge of being guilty of making the current situation worse than ever. They have decided to continue to be guilty of letting millions of animals die in misery due to their failure to close down the illegal trade. If the proposed changes are implemented, they will be guilty of further increasing the number of animals cruelly killed for fraudulent health myth. While claiming that they are not legalizing dog meat, this is clearly a way of doing so through the back door.
That the government is going ahead with such an unpopular policy which, in their own words, is without a consensus from the majority of the Korean public, shows that they were either greatly encouraged by or given strong instruction from the Korean President, who has, in the past, openly talked about legalizing dog meat. The Ministry of Agriculture had assured Sunnan that the legalization of dog meat cannot happen, at least for a while, because there is no consensus for legalizing dog meat among the general public in Korea and no government department wants to take on such an unpopular and troublesome task. We ask all our supporters to do all they can to oppose the Korean government's attempt to legalize dog meat.
Please write to the Korean Government telling them they should:
. Stop all their attempts to legalise the dog meat trade
. Include all dogs and cats in the definition of "Companion Animals"
. Enforce existing and future animal protection laws
. Protect all dogs & cats in both the markets & countryside
· Introduce clear penalties for slaughtering & selling of dogs & cats for food or medicine
. Educate the public about the myths of dog & cat meat products
Write to your Member of Parliament or Congress and to the Korean Embassies
· Write to your Member of Parliament or Congress and to the Korean Embassies.
- Ask them to contact the Korean Government and pressure them to protect all dogs and cats as "pet animals".
President Roh Moo-Hyun
Blue House
1 Sejong-Ro, Jongno-gu
Seoul
South Korea, 110-050
webmaster@president.go.kr
webmaster@korea.net
International Aid for Korean Animals
Korea Animal Protection Society
P.O. Box 20600, Oakland, 94620-0600, USA
www.koreananimals.org
iaka@koreananimals.org
(Tel/Fax.) 510-271-6795