Giant Dog To Korean Embassy: Dogs Are Friends Not Food
Members of In Defense of Animals Bare Teeth at Korean Consulate

Washington, D.C.— Holding signs that read “Dogs Are Our Friends Not Food,” in English and Korean, members of In Defense of Animals (IDA), including a “giant dog” will “beg” the Korean Government to enforce laws prohibiting the beating, hanging, burning, electrocution, and boiling alive of dogs and cats for consumption.

Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Place: Korean Embassy, 2450 Massachusetts Avenue N.W

Why do activists have their hackles raised over South Korea’s treatment of animals? South Korea has a law prohibiting the consumption of dogs and cats and another that considers dogs to be “domestic pets.” The law is ignored and the government blithely ignores offenders. Before dogs are killed for meat, they are often strung up by their legs and beaten. Dog butchers extol the virtues of their product, embellishing that the adrenaline rush that dogs experience by being bludgeoned to death enhances virility. Cats don’t fare any better—viewed as pest animals, they are boiled alive so their “juices” can be extracted for health tonics purported by butchers to alleviate symptoms of rheumatism.

IDA has received many letters from Korean citizens concerned about the torture, but too afraid to disclose their names, let alone speak out. As one woman described, “Using all his strength he pulled the dog by his left leg. Next he did the same with the right leg. While the dog was still alive, he was tearing his body apart. The dog was moaning with horrible pain. He thought I was someone who enjoyed dog meat. He smiled at me and proudly told me, ‘Dogs should take a long time to be killed, that way it tastes better.’” IDA is working in cooperation with Seoul-based Animal Freedom Korea to urge the Korean government to enforce its own laws to protect dogs and cats killed for food and medicine.

“It’s inconceivable that innocent beings whom we consider “man’s best friends” could be so brutally killed, butchered, and eaten,” says IDA president and founder Elliot M. Katz, DVM.

For more information on IDA and its Korean Animals Campaign, please visit www.IDAUSA.org. For more information on Animal Freedom Korea, please visit www.animalkorea.org.