South Korea hopes to cull its dog meat trade, but the tradition will linger on for a while yet
- It is traditionally believed to increase virility in older men, and is today recommended by some doctors as a tonic for patients recovering from plastic surgery
- But while more people are viewing dogs as pets rather than food, it will be years yet till the country sees the end of the billion-dollar dog meat industry
A captive audience inside a cinema watches as a pack of wary-looking dogs abandoned by their owners wander across the barren wilderness.
After the screening, Seoul mayor Park Won-soon stood before the crowd and pledged to eradicate South Korea’s notorious dog meat trade from the capital.
“In the past, we had several dog butcher shops in Cheongnyangni (a northern region of Seoul), but I closed almost all of them down through various measures,” Park told attendees, according to the Korea Times.
“Currently, one or two dog slaughterhouses remain. I cannot force them to go out of business, so I will put pressure on them to move.”
In recent times, South Korea has made multiple efforts to cull its long-standing and often-criticised tradition of dog meat consumption, leading to speculation that the industry may be on its last legs.
