South Korea on Thursday announced plans to compensate farmers and others in the country’s dwindling dog meat industry before a formal ban goes into effect in 2027, a move that is drawing opposition from both farmers and some animal rights activists.
South Korea’s parliament passed a landmark bill in January that would ban slaughtering, breeding or selling dog meat for human consumption after a three-year grace period. It would be punishable by two to three years in prison.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said that farmers would receive compensation starting from 225,000 won (US$171), and rising up to 600,000 won per dog if they agree to shut down their businesses early.
Photo: AP
An association of farmers rejected the offer, saying in a statement that they cannot relinquish their dogs for such low prices. Farmers earlier called for 2 million won per dog. They’ve said the ban infringes on their right to choose their own jobs and will aggravate their economic difficulties.
The association said that farmers would keep fighting even if they end up being jailed. Earlier in the week, they called for the law to be amended to extend the grace period and add appropriate compensation plans.
Lee Sang-kyung, a campaign manager at the South Korean office of the anti-animal cruelty group Humane Society International, called the South Korean announcement “an important milestone in this historic ban that will see the ban through to completion and end our country’s dog meat era for good.”
However, Lee said his office is disappointed at the South Korean plan, because it would pay farmers based on the number of dogs they have, “potentially increasing dog breeding to get more money from the scheme and more puppies being born into suffering.”
The Korean Animal Welfare Association, a Seoul-based animal rights group, said that local governments must strictly monitor farms to prevent them from increasing their number of dogs through breeding. It praised the government for trying to take reasonable steps to phase out the industry, while criticizing farmers for seeking excessive compensation.
Dog meat consumption is a centuries-old practice on the Korean Peninsula. It is also eaten in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and some African countries. However, South Korea’s dog meat industry has drawn more attention because of the country’s reputation as a cultural and economic powerhouse. It is also the only nation with industrial-scale dog farms.
South Korea’s anti-dog meat campaign received a big boost from the nation’s first lady, Kim Keon-hee, who repeatedly expressed her support for a prohibition. She was subjected to withering criticism and crude insults during demonstrations by farmers.
Surveys have found that about one in three South Koreans opposes the ban, athough most people now do not eat dog meat.
South Korean Vice Minister of Agriculture Park Beom-su told reporters that government studies found that about 466,000 dogs are being raised for food across South Korea.
He said officials would try to convince farmers to voluntarily phase out dog breeding ahead of the ban.
After the ban comes into force, the government plans to facilitate adoptions for the remaining dogs or move them to care facilities rather than euthanize them, Park said.
The ministry said butchers would also be compensated, while local authorities would be responsible for dismantling dog farms and slaughterhouses. Former farmers and butchers would also get low-interests loans if they pivot to other agricultural businesses.
The ministry said authorities would also offer financial assistance to traders and restaurant owners to shut down their businesses and find new jobs.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the