Sister City Campaign – Gangjin, South Korea – Snoqualmie, Washington
Campaign updated on 4/1/2023.
Snoqualmie Mayor Katherine Ross: Tell Sister City, Gangjin, South Korea, you oppose the torture and consumption of dogs and cats.
If you want to help fight the grisly South Korean dog and cat meat trade and make a difference in South Korea, here are a few quick actions you can take that could save millions of dogs and cats each year.
Gangjin became a Sister city to Snoqualmie in 2010.
In Gangjin, there are numerous dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets, and restaurants where the dogs, who have been tortured their entire lives, end up being slaughtered in the most inhumane ways, such as by electrocution, hanging, or beating, and then thrown into boiling water – sometimes while they are still alive. In many places, dogs are being killed in full view of other terrified, caged dogs; and this takes place in public and in broad daylight. In addition, many abandoned and stolen former pets end up in this industry and are subject to the same cruelty.
A Search Engine reveals the sickening scale of Gangjin’s dog meat demand.
Two searches on Naver (the most popular search engine in Korea) – one was for so-called “Health Centers,” which commonly sell dog elixirs and cat elixirs (also known as dog soju and cat soju), and the second one was for “dog meat restaurants” – resulted in dozens of Health Centers and dog meat restaurants in Gangjin.
Even if half of these ‘Health’ Centers and restaurants serve dog and cat ‘ingredients’ in one form or another, imagine how many dog/cat slaughterhouses must be in the vicinity of Gangjin to supply these outlets.
There are laws in South Korea against selling dogs and cats for consumption, yet these laws are blatantly ignored.
Call for Action
- 📧 Send emails to the Mayor Ross and the Snoqualmie City Council members.
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
📧 Send the CC (Carbon Copy) email to the Gangjin County Council, Jeollanam-do Council, and the South Korean National Assembly members.
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- 📬 Send letter. (Use the below-suggested message)
Snoqualmie City Hall
38624 SE River St.
PO Box 987
Snoqualmie, WA 98065
USA📬 Send a copy of your letter to Gangjin:
Mayor Kang Jin-Won
Gangjin County
111 Tamjin-ro, Gangjin-eup, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do
Postal Code 59228
South KoreaGangjin County Council
111 Tamjin-ro, Gangjin-eup, Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do
Postal Code 59228
South Korea📬 Gangjin’s addresses in Korean:
강진원 강진군수님
강진군청
(59228) 전라남도 강진군 강진읍 탐진로 111
South Korea강진군의회
(59228) 전라남도 강진군 강진읍 탐진로 111
South Korea - ☎️ Call the Snoqualmie Mayor’s office: (425) 888-5307
- Send a Twitter message!
.@gangjingun .@greenjeonnam .@camp8866 #Gangjin #SouthKorea #Snoqualmie .@SnoqualmieGov Tell Sister City #Gangjin #SouthKorea, you oppose the torture and consumption of #dogs and #cats 🐾 https://youtu.be/_ZVQjgGb4RQ 😢 https://vimeo.com/754160791 😭 https://chng.it/nwc4kKxm
Snoqualmie Mayor Katherine Ross: Please tell Sister City Gangjin, South Korea, you oppose the torture and consumption of dogs and cats.
Dear Mayor Katherine Ross and Snoqualmie City Council members:
As mayor and representatives of Snoqualmie, we ask you to reconsider your “friendship” with Gangjin, a county that permits dogs and cats to be horribly abused and brutally killed for food.
While graphic, these undercover videos depicting South Korea’s dog meat industry are important to watch:
Part 1 of 2: https://youtu.be/_ZVQjgGb4RQ
Part 2 of 2: https://vimeo.com/754160791
Dogs who suffered their entire lives are electric tortured and killed in cages—South Korea’s horrific dog meat industry. https://koreandogs.org/jtbc-news-electric-tortured-in-cages/
There are numerous dog farms and dog slaughterhouses in Gangjin. Korean web searches of Gangjin turn up dozens of dog meat restaurants and so-called “Health Centers” that commonly serve soup made of dog meat as phony elixirs (also known as dog soju).
Dogs suffer their entire lives in filthy, feces-encrusted raised wire cages in dire misery only to be slaughtered in the most horrific of ways— tortured by electrocution, hammer strikes to their head, hanging, being beaten to death, having their throats slit, being burned alive with a blowtorch or thrown into a vat of boiling water while still alive. In many places in Korea, dogs are killed in full view of other caged dogs who tremble with terror. In addition, beloved pets are often stolen and sold to these slaughterhouses, where they meet the same horrific fate. Puppies who die of disease are tossed away like trash, often left in front of cages to rot while their mothers watch and cry out in despair.
Mayor Christopher Chung of Palisades Park, NJ, has already shown his rejection of the dog meat trade in no uncertain terms. As reported in the Korea Times, he recently rejected a visit from exchange students from the friendship city, Incheon Ganghwa County, due to its dog meat trade. In California, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting legislation or administrative action that would request the governments of South Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia ban the sale of dog meat and enforce their animal protection laws.
On behalf of companion animal-loving Americans and people worldwide, we ask that you follow these bold leads by not remaining silent in the face of such abhorrent cruelty. Please urge Gangjin Mayor Kang Jin-won to shut down all Gangjin dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets, dog meat restaurants, and truckers transporting dogs to their inevitable fates. An online petition calling for your support in ending such horrors perpetrated in Gangjin is in progress: https://chng.it/nwc4kKxm.
Thank you for your serious consideration. We eagerly await your reply.
Sincerely,
[Your name, city, country]
Hello, I’m calling to speak to someone in the Mayor’s Office to ask for their help on an important issue regarding your Sister City, Gangjin, South Korea.
If I could explain: Dog-meat consumption is currently being practiced in that county, even though it is illegal under South Korean Law – but the laws are not enforced. The dog and cat meat trades involve extreme and widespread animal cruelty, and the animals suffer unimaginable pain and distress. They cannot speak for themselves, so I am calling on their behalf. And, I believe that your city would wish to be made aware of this issue, as you would not want to affiliate with a county where illegal and immoral torture is being carried out on any animal, and particularly not on ones that are loyal, trusting creatures, which look up to us humans as their guardians.
This illegal industry is being allowed to continue by Gangjin authorities – even though there is growing opposition from companion animal guardians across South Korea and worldwide.
So, I am asking you to please speak with your counterparts in Gangjin to urge them to enforce their laws, not ignore them, show compassion to their companion animals, and respect their citizens by bringing this cruel industry to an end.
I know South Korea has many beautiful, admirable, and noble practices and customs worth preserving, but this is not one of them.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
No matter where you live, PLEASE SHARE these actions with your friends, especially those who live in Snoqualmie! 🙏
“Meat dogs” in wire cages feed on rotten food waste slops while they wait to be slaughtered.
Share this:
Write their FB page RIGHT NOW!
This very second they’ve got this post at the top:
“Posts
City of Snoqualmie Government
19 hrs ·
Parents & Students Invited to a Meeting about a Summer Exchange to South Korea, May 9, 6:30 p.m., Snoqualmie City Hall, 38624 SE River St. Nine Mount Si High School students will again have the opportunity to participate in educational summer adventures in South Korea! This annual student exchange program is sponsored by the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association. Learn more: http://www.ci.snoqualmie.wa.us/…/Bring2m…/DMX/Download.aspx…
This is my comment below it. Please join me in warning these apparently clueless parents in Snoqualmie!!!
“Dear Mayor Larson and the City Council members,
As you might know, there is a culture of horrific cruelty (or at the very least callousness) toward animals in Asia. There are countless videos specifically documenting the pain and wretched misery suffered there by dogs and cats — animals just like our beloved pets in the West, but trapped in a nightmare of deliberate cruelty.
Are the friendly, animal-loving citizens of Snoqualmie aware that South Korea cruelly hangs, beats, electrocutes, drowns, burns or boils to death MILLIONS of dogs and cats every year? Do you know that Korea’s popular annual BOKNAL Festival is coming up in July, dedicated to killing and eating many thousands of dogs in the mistaken, medieval belief that eating dog meat helps a person withstand summer’s high temperatures..?
Informed citizens all over the world ask you to please watch the following videos depicting the realities of South Korea’s despicable dog meat industry:
http://youtu.be/3uR8R8Mu70Q
http://koreandogs.org/horrible-reality-of-meat-dog-farms-you-did-not-know/
http://koreandogs.org/dmp/.
Do you want to send your children to a country that raises (and even steals), then slaughters beloved pets as sadistically as possible **because they believe pain and fear makes the animals’ meat more tasty and healthy?!?**
Do you think that Snoqualmie should be a Sister City to any city or nation that allows dogs and cats to not only be eaten as food, but deliberately tortured to death?
Do you want to do business with people who drown millions of cats to make a useless “health tonic”? In this case it’s not “snake oil”, this idiocy is known as “Cat Soju” — and there is also an equally deplorable and sadistically manufactured “Dog Soju”. Neither “product” does anything but produce pain and endless suffering for the innocent creatures trapped in this horrific industry.
PLEASE urge Gangjin Mayor Jin-Won Kang to close down all of its dog farms and slaughterhouses, markets, truckers, and restaurants that serve these animal products.
An online petition calling for your support in ending the horrendous South Korean dog and cat meat cruelty is in progress:
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-matthew-r-larson-of-snoqualmie-tell-sister-city-gangjin-korea-that-we-re-opposed-to-torture-consumption-of-dogs-cats
In short, how can beautiful Snoqualmie – home to eco-conscious, animal-loving citizens – join hands with these callous slaughterers of beloved pets?!?!
This responsible consumer is boycotting everything Korean until these two-faced sadists finally prohibit this horrific industry and actually put a STOP to it.
Case in point: S. Korea has made a few strides toward the 21st Century and implemented new animal welfare laws.
But they carefully EXCEPT the sadistic and profitable dog and cat meat industry.
***What does that tell you?***
I’m boycotting all things Korean, including their upcoming, precious-avaricious Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in 2018 — and I guess I won’t be visiting Snoqualmie now either, until compassion means more there than cold, cruelty-based cash.
Caring and informed citizens thank you for NOT ignoring this horrific hypocrisy, for NOT sending your precious children to S. Korea and for NOT rewarding South Korea for its deliberate cruelty.”
Beth … I have left a comment on their FB , I took the liberty of repeating your comment which I find perfectly adequate.
HOW LONG will the WORLD watch unspeakable tortures inflicted on dogs and cats at South Korea’s dog-meat markets and do nothing about it. How can you talk about “peace” and “democracy” while shocking horrors are regularly committed on defenseless, loving and innocent animals in front of your eyes! Skinning dogs and cats alive, cooking them alive and other appalling tortures shall NOT BE SILENCED, but openly directed to the South-Korean President. We live in 2023 and this abomination must end!
Those who twin with this City of Horrors have the obligation to scrutinize its shocking ways of animal abuse and TAKE ACTION!
We hope you choke on your own cruel ways.
Urszula – your comment is right on and pretty much represents the sentiments of all of us who abhor the dog and cat meat industry in South Korea, and beyond. The law makers, and those that uphold the law, in South Korea need to think occasionally of the suffering of which they spare themselves the sight! Total fucking bullshit…