Heart, the Old English Sheep Dog which was butchered and eaten by villagers after it went missing on September 26 in a rural town some 190 kilometers southwest of Seoul. [Courtesy Chae's of blog]
The home page of a police station in South Korea's southwestern city of Iksan was paralyzed Wednesday with thousands of angry posts calling for harsh punishment of four men who are suspected of butchering and eating a missing pet dog at their community hall.
An internet campaign launched by animal rights activists to support the owner of the Old English Sheepdog has also gained growing public support, highlighting South Korea's controversial and deep-rooted culture of butchering dogs for meat.
The case has been investigated by Iksan's police station on complaints from a 33-year-old woman surnamed Chae who accused the four villagers of killing and eating her pet dog named "Heart".
The dog was reported missing on September 26 in a rural town some 190 kilometers (117 miles) southwest of Seoul. Chae immediately launched a search, posting flyers across the village, only to find that her dog had been eaten by her neighbors, including a 73-year-old surnamed Cho, at their village hall.
Chae wanted the villagers to be punished for violating an animal protection law that provides for a fine of 10 million won (8,952 US dollars) or a one-year prison term, insisting her dog was captured alive after being injured in a traffic accident.
Investigators, however, were cautious as the villagers claimed the dog was found dead. Footages from a village security camera showed them carrying the dog into a small truck while it was found alive in a public bus camera. Witnesses have provided conflicting testimonies.
"Heart was like my child ... My heart was broken because I heard that my dog was burnt and dismembered," Chae wrote on her blog.
Tens of thousands of internet community users have uploaded angry posts denouncing or calling for punishment of the dog eaters. "This is a cruel and barbarous act," said a user called "Koal". "Without strong punishment, we cannot stop such a deplorable incident," said another user, "Ra77".
Eating dogs has settled as a Korean tradition for ages, but the population of eating dog meat called Boshintang (dog soup) has dropped dramatically in recent years thanks to an active campaign by animal lovers.
It has always been the hot potato, never leaving the center of debate for decades at home and abroad. Dog meat lovers and restaurants claim that eating dog is nothing different from eating beef, pork, or horse meat. They also insist the deep-rooted tradition deserves more attention and respect.
Animal rights activists have called for a complete halt to eating dog meat because the canines are bred in meat farms and slaughtered in a cruel and unhygienic way.
The current law prohibits butchering an animal in front of other animals and requires quickest and painless methods in butchering. However, dog meat farms and slaughter yards are not subject to the Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act, there's not much the government can do.
There has been growing awareness of animal rights, helped by an increasing number of South Korean households with pets. In 2015, a survey showed 22 percent of households were living with pets.
Aju News Park Sae-jin and Lim Chang-won
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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