June 05, 2008 Korean government’s agreement to resume US beef imports has drawn concerns from public regarding the high risk of mad cow disease. Millions of Koreans gathered together every weekend and rallied in against of the government’s decision to import US beef.  Considering the situation and the public’s awareness on the problem of factory farming and mad cow disease, CARE decided to approach the dog meat issue in a different way. 

CARE is approaching the public in the new name “Green People” which is the name of sub-group formed by vegetarian members of our organization, rather than as the “CARE”, the animal protection group. This is a high time for us to let Korean public know the problems of mad cow disease, factory farming, and animal welfare in current farming practices, as the public seem to be very receptive and very interested in these issues. 

CARE has realized that the best strategy regarding dog meat issue is to let the public know that dog meat farming can cause serious problems just like beef farming. CARE (Green People) so far held protests three times at the public US beef protest rallies. 

At the first rally, we educated the people about the general issues of farming practices in South Korea. And at the following rally, we focused on associating dog meat with mad cow disease. We explained the public that dog meat is not safe from the mad cow disease due to cross-infection risk. We emphasized that the cross-infection risk exists in dog meat because the dogs are fed with dog food made from US beef and beef by-products.  In Korea most of dog food is imported from US and it is consumed by both pet dogs and dogs raised for the meat.  

The reception from the public was overwhelmingly positive!

The campaigns were so successful that CARE will continue to approach the public in this way. The third protest was held this Saturday and we further raised the issue of cross-infection risks of mad cow disease by consuming dog meat. Now the effect is already showing. Below is a summary of a new article published on June 5.
 
“Due to the strong opposition by the Korean citizens towards government’s decision to resume the US beef imports, Korean department of agriculture, fisheries and forestry is now showing reluctance to approve the Dog Meat Hygiene Management Policy proposed by Seoul city. The official said that Seoul city was going to submit the “Dog Meat Hygiene Management Policy” proposal to the government by May this year, however, because of the anti-US beef movement and public’s strong adverse reaction to the government’s decision, the Seoul city is now considering revoking the proposal.” 

April 27, 2008 Survey on dog meat

April 25, 2008  Since the event and protest on Earth Day 2008(April 20), CARE members and supporters launched 'One-man Relay Protest'  right in front of the Seoul city hall. The protest went on until the mid May(Due to the massive protest over beef import issue in downtown seoul area, the one man protest was stopped for safety concern).

April 24, 2008   Animal Groups in Korea are making protest against the city of Seoul's proposal for legal 'dog meat' and individual advocates are writing letters to the Mayor of Seoul and the President of Korea.

April 23, 2008 One of CARE's volunteers has opened online petition site, seeking more support from individuals worldwide. The petition can show how the rest of the world sees the government's move on dog meat. CARE plans to submit the petion results. Please sign petition!

April 13, 2008  The suffering of dogs destined for consumption by humans in Korea has been documented many times. They are crammed into tiny cages, deprived of water and proper food, beaten and hanged – sometimes they are even burnt alive.

On March 24th 2008, the municipality of Seoul released the Dog Meat Hygiene Management Policy, a document that lists dogs as livestock. It plans to recommend amendments of the national laws on Livestock Products Processing to formally include dogs as livestock. Korean animal protection groups gathered in front of Seoul city hall on March 25th and 26th to protest this move.

For years Korean groups have worked on public education campaigns to promote the concept that dogs are not food. They are asking for support from other communities worldwide with the hope that countries that have already banned the consumption of dog and cat meat (including Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines) and those where this is not a major issue (including Singapore, Japan and India) could help to persuade the Korean government not to legalise this animal abuse.

We would like to ask for your help to support the Korean groups, CARE and KAAP, with their campaign to stop dogs from being listed as livestock by the government.