Seoulscapade

I haven’t said much about the dog eating industry in this country. It’s a disgrace, but perhaps no more of a disgrace that the rest of the meat industry. However, the other day, after I came across a blog post by someone I would call a dog eating apologist, I decided to respond.

My ire was raised partly because this guy’s attitude toward the dog meat industry is typical of foreigners in Korea. I also lost patience with the cliches he was coming out with, along with the attempt to be judiciously enlightened on the subject. His post smacked of such self-satisfied complacency, I could not leave it alone.

But let’s backtrack a little. The blog poster, Seoul Buffoon, as he goes by, was writing about the latest controversies surrounding the dog meat industry in Korea. The government in an attempt to clean up the industry will be inspecting dog restaurants to ensure they meet hygiene standards. It is also likely to designate dogs as livestock to ensure more regulation and hygiene.

You can read more background on it in the Wall Street Journal.

Of course, these moves are to protect public health only. Forget improved conditions for dogs and the sorrowful lives they lead in such cages as shown above. I doubt much will change there. An article about the dog industry and what goes on in it can be found here. But this article is a gloss and hardly goes into the brutalities and evils that are committed, even by ordinary Koreans, as you see below.

Here is Seoul Buffoon’s whitewash on the subject:

Now before I continue with my personal opinion about this whole matter, I have to inform readers that I keep three adorable dogs at home. Two of them are Miniature Schnauzers and one is a Yorkshire Terrier. They truly are mans best friend and are “givers” not “takers”.

I am a dog-lover, having always had atleast one to keep me company for the past 20 years…. also, for the record, I am a non-vegetarian who relishes beef, pork and seafood….

That does not stop me from saying that all this “international” furore and concerns of “civic groups” over eating dog meat is just crap. I can understand vegetarians arguing about it, not the international community or Korean civic groups, who relish beef, pork, seafood and poultry products, but have an issue with dog meat.

It is part of the tradition in East Asian societies and one cannot force them to give it up. One can argue about the way these dogs are killed and the hygiene aspects, but not that Koreans or Chinese should stop eating dogs.

I have personally not eaten dog meat, but do not have any issue with people who relish the dish. It is their personal choice and just because I am a dog-lover, I should not be forcing my opinion on them. For this reason, I fully support the initiative of the Seoul Government. Now at least the dog meat industry will be regulated, just like it is for other livestock.

I can draw a parallel here to the situation in my own country, India, where beef is banned in most provinces. Cows are a religious symbol for Hindus and people shudder when they think of others killing them for food. By the same logic, shouldn’t the wishes of a billion-strong country be respected and beef banned across the world? No. But it is regulated and thats the way it should be. Let individuals decide what they want to eat!

And here is what two commenters had to say about it:

Way to go buffoon…one of your best posts I have read to date. I fully agree.

Hit the nail on the head buddy!

Morons. How easily they are satisfied with platitudes and calming jargon. When the reality is this:

And this:

And this (notice the dog in the cage at the back who has to witness it all):

And this:

There you have it, from a torturous life through to a tortuous death.

Well, after encountering that blather I quoted above, and once I had ceased rubbing my eyes as if waking from a dream, I put together the following and dropped it in Mr. Buffoon’s comment box:

Ah, yes, one buffoon and some clowns to pat him on the back. It’s like watching politicians.

It always annoys me to come across complacency disguised as a self-righteous “live and let live” argument. You are just issuing platitudes here, Mr. Buffoon. You sit back comforted that the government is taking care of things. Your thinking is not troubled by the human tendency to cut corners and shirk responsibility. The word regulation appears to give you peace of mind. You are easily pleased, Mr. Buffoon, but then most apologists are.

From all this, and from your confession that you are a meat eater, I gather that you just don’t get the point about what is wrong with the meat industry. Hygiene? Is that all that matters? I urge you, Mr. Buffoon, to seek further education in the areas of the meat industry, animal rights, ethics, and reality, at your earliest convenience. Perhaps then you will not be so soft in your views.

But it was not complacency that drove me to register a response. What bugged me enough to do so was you citing tradition as a justification for shrugging and accepting the status quo. What a convenient cliché. Let me make something plain: tradition justifies nothing. What more pathetic argument can there be than tradition, when so much of it is based on delusion, fallacy, money grabbing and power mongering?

To hell with tradition. Suffering and the welfare of other living things supersedes it. Why not stop Koreans or Chinese eating dogs? Why not force our opinion on them against the practice? You give no valid reason why we should not. No law exists to say we should not. Throughout history, if human beings had not asserted opinion against what they find appalling, how would we have ended up? Better or worse?

Isn’t is curious that base self-interests are often behind the myths of tradition. And isn’t it peculiar how things like traditions or regulations are circumvented, should even they stand in the way of self interests? The meat industry gets away with abuses all the time. Tradition or not, regulation or not, the evils are still committed.

And what about India, where as you say cows are supposed to be sacred. How is it that much of the world’s leather comes from that country? Clearly, it cannot be a “billion strong” that are concerned with the welfare of cattle there. From what I have seen, cattle are subjected to lengthy torturous journeys to slaughterhouses. Chilies are rubbed into their eyes to drive them on, even as they have collapsed from exhaustion. I’ve seen the footage. Is this barbarism still happening there? Is that practice in the regulations you so glowingly proclaim?

So much for what is sacred, Mr. Buffoon, when animal welfare stands in the way of human self interest and profit taking. In future societies, this age will be looked upon as barbaric due to the hell on earth we perpetuate for other living creatures. People will one day view us as we now view those in the era of slavery. That is because slavery, deprivation and torture is what humans still subject animals to daily.

Is this really the best that humans can do? It is most certainly not what I would call civilized behavior. But apparently, it is good enough for you, as it is for the knuckleheads commenting in support.

Let me leave you with this: “When a man has pity on all living creatures, then only, is he noble.” (Buddha Siddhartha Gautama)

That ought to stir things up. I’ll post back if there is any response.

Meanwhile, one of the lies bandied about concerning the dog trade—another lie that placates the gullible like buffoon and the kinds of clowns that would agree with him—is how only a certain kind of dog is bred for consumption. It’s an “eating dog,” you’ll hear people say, as if it’s genetically predisposed or ordained by some god to be a livestock animal, classed with a chicken, for example. (The Prince of Denmark, an eccentric old git and dog eater, has actually compared a dog to a chicken.)

The reality, once again, is not so easily whitewashed with easy labels. In the photo above are dogs of all breeds awaiting a buyer and their inevitable slaughter. They don’t even have water to drink. None of them deserved such a horrific end. Many were perhaps betrayed and abandoned by scumbag owners.

If you want more of a dose of reality, please visit this site, from which some of the above pictures were taken: http://www.yellowdog.or.kr

Update:

As expected, a response came to my comment above, and here it is:

That was a passionate argument, and I respect our opinion.
But I have to mention here that I made it very clear in my post: ” I can understand vegetarians complaining about dog meat….
not people who eat beef and pork.”
I can understand from your response that you are obviously a vegetarian….a PETA advocate (?)
Read my post carefully without getting agitated.
I agree with many of your staements. Also that “The meat industry gets away with abuses all the time. Tradition or not, regulation or not, the evils are still committed.”…but think a bit. Has that stopped people from eating meat? No.
My argument as simple, if you cannot ban it, control it!

Oh, dear, I don’t think I got my point across, or it didn’t sink in. I probably should have stated that the issue is with the suffering that animals have to endure, with the endemic speciesism—a legacy of tradition–still pervading human cultures. After agreeing that evils are committed, even with controlling regulation, he immediately returns to complacency with a contradictory “control it” as a solution. At this point, he seems to have lost his reasoning powers.

Essentially, his comment is another whitewash, as much as the new law will be. I suspect his eyes were glazed over while writing it. The same for when alluding to PETA, which is what usually jumps in peoples’ minds, who know nothing else of the animal rights movement. For most people, it’s a kind of acronym for a world whose philosophy is only understood at a level equivalent to a bumper sticker slogan. No, I’m not affiliated with any organization in particular.

Another commenter was also moved to show his or her allegiance with the complacent Buffoon, saying my opinion was:

a bit too rude and harsh on you….I found your post very sensible. Obviously he is emotional and not rational like u.

Thanks for the compliment at the beginning. Emotional? Yes, it’s required to wake people up. Not rational? Make that one buffoon and three knucklehead clown commenters in total.