HELP END KOREAN DOG/CAT SLAUGHTER

We, the undersigned, are appalled and outraged that two million South Korean dogs are electrocuted, strangled, or bludgeoned to death each year for human consumption. Illegal and unsanitary dog farms are hidden away in the countryside where breeders raise their stock for butchers. It is reported that 30\% are stolen from families who love them. The rests are homeless dogs, captured by butchers and sold in open markets. Eyewitnesses have reported dogs being torn apart while still alive, their tormentors saying that the more prolonged the torment of death, the better the taste. The fact that they are killed in the cruelest ways imaginable, because many Koreans believe the adrenaline that rushes through the system will improve virility, is something that has never been scientifically proven. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that dogs should be kept in filthy crates, forced to watch one another be killed in the most inhumane ways possible. Cats fare no better; they are viewed as pest animals and are boiled alive so their "juices" can be extracted for supposed health tonics which butchers claim can be used to treat rheumatism. This attitude toward any living being is at best deplorable.

Even though the practice of eating dogs and cats gained popularity after the Korean War due to widespread starvation, the practice is not widely accepted in Korea and only continues to thrive due to greedy restaurateurs, meat dealers, and butchers. In addition, there is a 1991 law that prohibits the human consumption of dogs and cats, and the small contingent of people who blithely ignore the law and continue to abuse these innocent beings to make money must be stopped. We are outraged that "man's best friend" is being betrayed in this way. Dogs are well-loved animals in Korea and many people keep dogs as companions. It is the Korean Government's responsibility to ensure that anyone who breaks its laws be strictly punished, and we, the undersigned, support any measure to enforce the existing animal-cruelty laws which were created to prevent the the torture and slaughter of companion animals for food.