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[wylies99]

Dog Farms Under Sanitation Rules

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/08/117_29358.html

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Environment said it will categorize dogs as livestock to regulate the sanitation practices of large-scale dog breeders.

The central and local governments have refrained from putting dogs on a par with cattle, chickens and other livestock as it means an official recognition of dog meat as food. Under the current law, it is theoretically illegal to butcher dogs and trade their meat.

As dogs are not currently listed as livestock, there are no legal grounds to regulate dog meat restaurants and those who breed dogs for human consumption. However, under the revised law, which will come into effect Sept. 28, large-scale ``dog farmers" must build facilities to handle the disposal of dog excretion and report it to regional authorities.

Dog farms have been one of main sources of pollution, as massive amounts of dog excretion are dumped into water and soil due to the absence of regulations, according to the ministry.

``The revised law aims to properly regulate dog farms and tackle the soil and water pollution in areas around them,'' an official from the ministry said. ``We have received a lot of complaints from local residents in areas where dogs are raised.''

The revised Livestock Night Soil Disposal Act requires dog farmers with facilities of 60 square meters to have proper waste disposal facilities and report them to local authorities by Sept. 27. Violators can face a maximum penalty of a one-year jail term or 10 million won ($10,000) fine.

According to the ministry, there are about 720,000 dog farms nationwide, raising some 2.3 million dogs as of December of 2005. The ministry estimated one third of them must follow the new regulations.

Still, the status of dogs remains ambiguous, depending on which laws you adopt.

However, laws on the trading of dog meat have yet to include dogs in the list of livestock, which means the authorities cannot regulate the trade of dog meat and inspect the sanitation of markets and restaurants selling dog meat.

This blurry definition of dog meat has resulted in the unsanitary status of dog meat even though many Koreans enjoy eating it. There were previous attempts to categorize dogs as livestock and recognize dog meat as food, but they were scrapped due to strong criticism from animal rights groups inside and outside of the country.

Civic groups opposing eating dog meat were reserved in their reaction to the Environment Ministry's move to classify dogs as livestock.

``Given serious pollution issues, we cannot simply oppose the move to regulate the night soil from dog farms,'' Jun Kyung-ok, director of the Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, said. ``But we will keep an eye on how it will affect other issues, such as recognition of dog meat as food or legalization of the dog meat trade.''

Seoul City earlier this year planned to propose categorizing dogs as livestock, citing dog meat is suspected to contain harmful substances, such as heavy metals, antibiotics and bacteria due to the absence of proper regulations. But it fell short of carrying it through as it confronted strong criticism and only began inspections of restaurants that serve dog meat.

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[wylies99]

[sojusucks]

Let's be glad that the dog meat industry will finally be regulated. Hopefully, the prices will fall so that we all can enjoy this delicacy (the price has kept me from trying it thus far).

[stevieg4ever]

Are you joking? It is as cheap as all the othe tripe they serve up here.

[stevieg4ever]

Because there is no 'law' i.e. in the sense of something that is enforced or in the western concept of the term. It is like 'coffee' shops, 'massage' parlours, foreign worker's rights and all the rest of it: it is 'officially' against the law but the laws are never enforced as the police choose to look the other way.

[earthbound14]

[nolegirl]

This is so sad. I had no idea there were so many dog farms. It really is sad just thinking about it.

Wylies, weren't you the one that told me that they beat the dogs to death b/c the endrolin goes up making the meat a good aphrodisiac for men to get a hard on., right??

What kind of dogs do they have as livestock?

[CentralCali]

[CentralCali]

[wanamin]

[CentralCali]

Sure. The dogs are brutalized as the local belief is that the brutal treatment itself is what gives the meat its magical power. There's no such belief about the pigs and cows so they're treated much better than the dogs. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I am vegetarian.

[wylies99]

[garykasparov]

CentralCali is going to lead a protest against restaurant owners in Seoul who offer dog meat to customers. Please call 02-2664-6202 for more information about this protest.

[Xuanzang]

[stevieg4ever]

It is terrible fate that many of these animals suffer.

In my Korean class in London one of my fellow students worked for the RSPCA and did a lot of work in Korea and China. Some of the stuff he has shared with us wasn't a pretty example for old 우리나라 i'll say that much.

I am in the boons and there are dog farms (often disguised or heavily concealed), dog restaurants and dog meat butchers everywhere. The 'classification' as 'food stuffs' or whatever is another laughable and a pathetic vieled attempt by this country to conceal its wrong-doings.

Someone in my town does work at KAPS (a Korean animal welfare organisation) and some of the Korean owners won't sell the stray animals to other Koreans under any conditions. One - Korean - lady has cats, dogs, parrots, rabbits and owls in her home at once and she has lost friends because of it.

If you want to see some gruesome footage go to you tube and type in 'dogs korea' and see some of the footage. It is not for the faint of heart.

A lot of words are said and spoken of Korea on this forum. I for one am not generally a fan of many practices here but, I am sorry, cultural relativism aside, this is one issue I cannot contend with. Anyone who does has simply been here too long. Between my friend in my Korean class at the RSPCA and volunteering with KAPS I have learnt a lot about this country and animal rights here and it is a total and utter unspeakable moral shame.