South Korea’s parliament on Tuesday handed a invoice banning breeding, slaughtering and promoting dogs for his or her meat, a standard observe that activists have known as a humiliation for the nation.
Dog meat has lengthy been part of South Korean delicacies, and at one level as much as 1,000,000 dogs have been killed for the commerce yearly, based on activists. But consumption has sharply declined just lately as Koreans embrace pet possession in droves.
Eating canine meat is a taboo amongst younger, city South Koreans, and strain on the federal government to outlaw the observe from animal rights activists has been mounting.
Official help for a ban has grown beneath President Yoon Suk Yeol, a self-professed animal lover who has adopted a number of stray dogs and cats with First Lady Kim Keon-hee — who’s herself a vocal critic of canine meat consumption.
The invoice, which was proposed by each the ruling and fundamental opposition events, was handed unanimously by a 208-0 vote.
It will come into impact following a three-year grace interval after it receives ultimate approval from Yoon.
Under the legislation, breeding, promoting and slaughtering dogs for his or her meat can be punishable by as much as three years in jail or 30 million gained ($23,000) in fines.
“Now there isn’t any longer any justification for being criticised as a ‘dog-eating nation’,” stated Thae Yong-ho, a ruling People Power Party lawmaker who proposed the invoice.
“The ruling and opposition events and the federal government should now take the lead in defending… animal rights,” he stated in an announcement.
– Historic invoice –
Activists additionally welcomed the invoice, saying it was “historical past within the making”.
“We reached a tipping level the place most Korean residents reject consuming dogs and need to see this struggling consigned to the historical past books,” JungAh Chae, govt director of Humane Society International/Korea, stated in an announcement.
“Today our policymakers have acted decisively to make {that a} actuality,” she stated.
“While my coronary heart breaks for all of the hundreds of thousands of dogs for whom this variation has come too late, I’m overjoyed that South Korea can now shut this depressing chapter in our historical past and embrace a canine pleasant future.”
In a survey launched on Monday by Seoul-based assume tank Animal Welfare Awareness, Research, and Education, 9 out of 10 folks in South Korea stated they’d not eat canine meat sooner or later.
Tuesday’s vote was a pioneering resolution globally, stated activist group Animal Liberation Wave, including it might pave the best way for shielding the rights of different animals.
“The journey in the direction of a ‘canine meat-free Republic of Korea’ is usually a place to begin for not solely liberating dogs, but in addition presenting completely different requirements and a future for different species of animals which are topic to industrial exploitation, equivalent to cows, pigs, and chickens,” it stated in an announcement.
Previous efforts to ban canine meat have run into fierce opposition from farmers who breed dogs for consumption. The new legislation will present compensation in order that businesses can transfer out of the commerce.
Around 1,100 canine farms breed a whole lot of hundreds of dogs annually which are served in eating places throughout the nation, based on authorities figures.
Dog meat is often eaten in South Korea as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy pink meat — invariably boiled for tenderness — believed to extend vitality to assist deal with the warmth.
The nation’s present animal safety legislation is meant primarily to forestall the merciless slaughter of dogs and cats, however doesn’t ban consumption itself.
Nonetheless, authorities have invoked the legislation and different hygiene laws to crack down on canine farms and eating places forward of worldwide occasions such because the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
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