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Below is Jangheung’s response to our petition: Jangheung, South Korea, Shut down the illegal dog meat farms, slaughterhouses and markets.

This is a typical response from the Korean government citing a lack of relevant laws for their failure to close down dog meat industry. This is inaccurate as well as shamefully indifference. Click HERE for the legal information by the Korea Animal Rights Advocates.

Further, as they do not regulate the dog meat industry, they therefore would not have any evidence that the dog meat farms, slaughterhouses and markets do not exist in their county. There are many dog meat restaurants and so called “health food shops” (which commonly sells dog/cat elixir) operating in that county. Without active enforcement, these illegal industries will be operating with the government’s blessing.

Our campaign is still effective because now they are aware that the eyes of the world are watching what’s going on in their county’s dog meat industry. They have stated that going forward they will do their best to improve animal welfare, but let’s keep up the pressure by taking action!

Below is our comments on the satisfaction survey regarding their response:

We are not satisfied with the response to our petition, due to the following key reasons:

it fails to substantiate and evidence what direct actions the Jangheung County is taking to enforce existing laws to disrupt the entrenched dog meat trade in South Korea. We have not been provided, in this response, with any evidence of any direct actions taken by the Jangheung County, such as recorded information relating to inspections, monitoring and actual enforcement action taken against violators, in relation to dog meat farming, slaughterhouses and businesses selling dog meat and dog meat products (such as dog elixir and dog soju);

it fails to show what actions the Jangheung County is taking with regard to proposing amendments to existing legislation or bringing in new legislation to address and end the dog and cat meat trade, and

it fails to formally acknowledge the existence of the illicit dog and cat meat trade within South Korea and the problems this poses to human health, animal welfare and organized crime, which has been widely documented by both domestic and international NGO’s and animal charities (and has also been raised as an international area of concern by many western governments with South Korea and its diplomatic missions).