Dog meat has fallen out of favour with diners in South Korea over the past few decades.
  • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4418·
    6 months ago

    Ultimately a step in the right direction i suppose but there are a lot of animals that aren’t dogs that also deserve not to be bred and slaughtered for their meat.

    Ultimately a dogs life is worth no more or less than a pig or a cow…

    • poke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      83·
      6 months ago

      Well you can feed more people with one cow’s life than one dog’s life.

      Not that it’s right that either should have to be sacrificed anymore.

      • Hyperlon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        81·
        6 months ago

        That same logic would apply to every animal chickens, pigs, sheep, most fish, etc. other than perhaps elk or bison.

      • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        102·
        6 months ago

        Pigs and cows are quite different from dogs in a few ways. Dogs have been bred for various roles, like being our friends, helpers, or protectors, while pigs and cows have been raised mainly for food like meat.

        This view comes from people who have never had to consider how their meat gets on their table, and it’s one of the reasons I have such a strong distaste for the modern factory farming culture.

        I grew up in rural Asia before moving to Europe. We had to raise any meat we wanted to eat. Pigs, cows, chickens are no different than dogs in that they all unique beings that have their own distinct personalities, likes, dislikes, and even favourite people. Yes, we still ate them, but we treated them like living beings that were giving their lives for our sustenance and survival. They were treated with respect, and no part of them was wasted. This is really not a mentality you see in society nowadays.

        I still eat meat, but I try to find small, local farmers and don’t really eat meat when I eat out. I wish I could take care of my own livestock again, as they were truly our family’s companions that were essential for our survival at the time. They were just as important to me as my cat and dog sitting at my feet currently. The commodification of these animal’s lives as it relates to human profit is just a sad thought to me.

        I know this is probably not a popular view, or maybe even a well thought out one. But it’s mine.

        • PR3CiSiON@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          6 months ago

          Have you watched okja? That made me hate animal farming. I also eat meat, but mostly chicken because I don’t feel bad killing a chicken like I would a cow.

          • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            I have not! Is that a show or documentary? I’ll have to look it up.

            And chicken’s can be cute too! I had a hen that would sleep with me at our farm. She would sleep on top of me and try to cover me from the cold like they do to their eggs haha.

            I don’t think you (or other people) should necessarily feel bad about eating cows and chickens, that’s just part of the lifecycle (and we humans are a part of that). It’s the awful conditions that we as a society breed, raise, and end these animal’s lives in for luxuries that we should feel bad about.

      • moriquende@lemmy.worldEnglish
        52·
        6 months ago

        How does that make a moral difference? The dogs they’re (were) eating were bred for meat just like pigs and cows.

  • FishFace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2616·
    6 months ago

    I don’t understand why you would ban it in a country where it has been consumed traditionally. Is there a public health reason behind this?

    • Cowbee@lemmy.mlEnglish
      377·
      6 months ago

      President Yoon is just trying to grab cheap optics wins, considering he’s an overt fascist that has taken numerous Ls. Banning dog meat does very little, it was already pretty much an eradicated food staple and only harms the lowest classes who had to rely on the cheapest forms of meat to sustain themselves. Everyone who could afford better meat was already only eating it.

      Functionally, there’s no difference between a dog, a pig, or a cow, when it comes to life value. There isn’t an economic or moral reason to just ban dog meat other than to make the fascist admin look better.

    • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      171·
      6 months ago

      More of a culture shift. And I think it was traditionally eaten in tight economic times, not because there was any significant meaning or quality in dog meat.

      • lovesickoyster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        119·
        6 months ago

        not because there was any significant meaning or quality in dog meat

        it actually tastes pretty damn good, somewhere between lamb and pork, imho.

        • WFloyd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          71·
          6 months ago

          Can confirm, tastes good. This was in Papua New Guinea, the dog was donated to a function to be eaten because it kept killing people’s chickens.

          What’s funny is some tribes will eat dog and not cat, others eat cat and not dog, and they both think the other is weird for their choice.

        • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Fair enough! Lol

          I don’t think I’d give up beef or pork to substitute dog in there.

          I did like the point someone else brought up – raising dogs for meat isn’t economical in terms of the life cost.

          Chickens, cows, and pigs can feed a lot more people per animal life than a dog can. (Female chickens produce eggs)

          Even lamb – they can produce wool and milk (… right? Lol).

    • Jin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      6 months ago

      The president has 6 dogs as pets ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

      I wonder if they would ban horse too? They are domesticated, but are in many Korea cuisines… nah probably not

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    21·
    6 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The government has promised to fully support dog meat farmers, butchers and restaurant owners, whose businesses will be forced to close, though the details of what compensation will be offered have yet to be worked through.

    On Tuesday lunchtime in Seoul, down an alleyway with several dog meat restaurants, a handful of older people were tucking into the stew and the generational divide was stark.

    Previous governments, dating back to the 1980s, have pledged to ban dog meat, but failed to make progress.

    The current President Yoon Suk Yeol and the First Lady Kim Keon Hee are known animal lovers.

    Jung Ah Chae, the executive director of the Humane Society in Korea, said she was surprised to see the ban in her lifetime.

    One dog meat restaurant owner in her 60s, Mrs Kim, told the BBC she was frustrated by the ban, and blamed it on the rise in the number of people in South Korea having pets.

    The original article contains 706 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • ZahzenEclipse@kbin.social
    58·
    6 months ago

    It looks like meat eaters might be the minority on this platform. I agree that technically there’s no difference
    in any animal meat trade (barring some details). Vegans got decent arguments for people who don’t beleive that people should eat dogs but beleive in eating other animals. Their arguments aren’t as good if you don’t assign the same value to animals as you do to humans.