South Korea Passes Bill to Finally End the Practice of Eating Dog Meat
South Korea’s parliament passed a bill Tuesday banning the breeding and slaughter of dogs for human consumption, ending a centuries long practice that many young young Koreans strongly opposed.
Under the bill, anybody slaughtering a dog for food can be punished by up to three years in prison or fined up to about $23,000 USD.
As appalling and unthinkable of many of us people in America found this barbaric tradition, eating dogs as a food had a long standing tradition during certain festivals, and as a way that people thought could help beat the high temperatures during the summer. It was also a cheap and readily available source of nutrition at a time when poverty rates were far higher amongst citizens.
Related: Video of Woman Rescuing Golden Retriever from Korea Brings Us to Tears
Under this new bill, anybody slaughtering a dog for food can be punished by up to three years in prison or fined up to 30 million Korean won (about $23,000). Anyone who breeds dogs for eating, or who knowingly acquires, transports, stores or sells food made from dogs, also faces a lower fine and prison time.
How To Help Dogs Saved from the South Korean Meat Trade
There are many organizations dedicating to finding new homes for dogs rescued from the meat trade. The Jindo Lover Rescue organization has adoptable dogs on its website and their entirely volunteer-run rescue saves as many dogs as they can from dog meat farms, puppy mills, and abandonment.
Korean Paws Rescue is a non-profit 100% volunteer-run organization, and they also feature adoptable dogs on their website.
Free Korean Dogs has worked tirelessly to shut down Korean dog meat farms and to find homes for over a thousand dogs they have rescued from the dog meat trade. You can learn more about their organization here.
Korean K9 Rescue is a volunteer-driven No-Kill dog rescue organization based in Queens, New York and Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, South Korea. They have volunteer, foster, and adoption opportunities listed on their website.
One of the best ways you can help is by supporting your local Humane Society and animal shelter. We can expect a lot of local shelters to be helping in dogs rescued from South Korea find new homes and by supporting your local shelter and volunteering you are making a difference in every animal's life, no matter where they came from.
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