32 Comments:

• That is the worst thing i have heard of in a very long time.I have no other words for the idiots over there.Yes, i said IDIOTS, how can they be aloud to do that?
  It just goes to show how crazy their culture really is.I will judge someone when it comes to harming an innocent PET.

  By  chavagirl2003@yahoo.com, at 7:27 PM, June 23, 2005  

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• I HOPE THEY ALL GET WORMS AND DIE.

  By  MELISSA, at 7:30 PM, June 23, 2005  

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• How horrible,i agree with the other comments.They need to be dog whipped for it.I'M sure thats what there doing to those poor dogs.

  By  Angel Baily, at 7:34 PM, June 23, 2005  

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• It's easy to judge when not part of that culture. We eat things in the U.S. that disgust others. Dogs are eaten in several other countries, not just Korea. I'd never eat it, but I also will not judge a culture I know little about.

  By  kidpt@yahoo.com, at 3:14 AM, June 24, 2005  

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• Animals , like cats or dogs, are not put on this earth to eat.Anyone with any kind of morals should know and agree with that.I will stick to what God wanted us to eat, anything else would be a hethen.Just because you truly don't agree with another culture doesn't mean your judging them.It simply means you have your own opinion on it.The others who think it is disgusting are right, in my opinion.We should beat them and put them in a stew.

  By  tyler, at 9:52 PM, June 27, 2005  

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• It's natural that those who has lived in not-dog-eating culture feel disgusted at dog meat, thinking "How can they harm man's best friend?" But I think you're not facing brutal activity in other country, but CULTURE SHOCK. Westerns say dogs & cats are best friends, but it's true only in their culture whereas not in other countries. Think of Indians that serves cows as their god.

  By  Anonymous, at 4:50 AM, July 19, 2005  

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• we can easily say that these people are idiots and want to judge them because they will eat something that we wouldnt,i personally will never try eating a cat or a dog but how would you feel if somebody said(another culture) you are disgusting for eating chicken or pork or beef because in there culture that's man's best friend. turn it around and see how it feels

  By  ms lyn, at 4:24 PM, July 25, 2005  

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• Good grief. The only interesting thing about this thread is the people who are afraid to get caught judging another culture. Listen up morons: cultures compete and can be ranked. One way to rank them is by how compatible they are with yours. You could also rank them by how destructive they are to themselves or other cultures.
  
  Any way you do it, Korea is not cool.

  By  Anonymous, at 10:20 PM, August 03, 2005  

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• Sorry to say this but you all are complete misinterpreting the Korean culture. Korean culture is known for its harmony with nature and the peacefulness. In East Asia, Korean culture was referred to as the culture of respect and etiquette. We were never a destructive culture in any ways. We seldom invaded or attacked neighboring countries as China or Japan did. Your assumption that a culture should be judged by how it treats its pets is ridiculous. All Koreans own dogs and cats as pets, not some food menu. If you've never been there or know any one personally, don't try to make fool out of yourself, because Koreans love dogs and cats as pets. The older generation usually goes to dog retaurants (also very few), but the young people don't eat any dogs.
  Crazy culture? Please refrain from using such non-sense descriptions. You're not in the position to judge which culture is crazy or not, and actually no one is. What would conservative muslim cultures like Iran view the US as? They would think of it as a crazy culture of sinful medias and practices.
  Furthermore, about what God wanted us to eat, where does it ever say in the Bible that God wanted humans not to eat dogs?
  Was it not the "hethen" (as you call it) Korean culture that influenced so much of the Japanese culture? (whom westerners are very affectionate to)
  It was a korean prince named Homuda who esatblished a new kingdom called Yamato after the Yamato river in the head of Osaka Bay. According to the Japanese chronicles, the court of the Yamato kings was based on Korean models for the titles given to the court and regional aristocrats were drawn from Korean titles.
  If you are so willing to call a culture hethen so easily, without knowing inch about them, why don't you call the Japanese hethens, for the unimaginable war crimes they have commited to all of East Asians in the past century. Rape, murder, massacre, mass slavery, and all you could think of as being cruel.
  This whole blog is preposterous.
  If you people view Korea as an awkward nation, why do you people even use what the "hethens" develope and manufacture, such as Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, LG, Kia, and much more modern electronic and automobile equipments.
  You people need to get your attitudes straight. The real thing that matters is how we treat humans with respect, and then dogs come secondary.

  By  Anonymous, at 8:11 PM, September 02, 2005  

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• Directing these comments only toward Koreans is wrong. Chinese, Phillipino, Africans (Such as in Congo), and a lot of cultures in the world eat dogs. A lot more than you would expect.

  By  Anonymous, at 8:20 PM, September 02, 2005  

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• It was also reported that the French also ate dogs during the Franco-Prussian War.

  By  Anonymous, at 8:21 PM, September 02, 2005  

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• We eat fish-pigs-cows-birds- bugs-or what we want to in the U S - i don,t eat my pet but if i was starving i would and i wouldn,t tell my kids- a lot of things are pets and a lot of things are food- we are lucky in the U - S to get a choice - bernie

  By  Anonymous, at 7:23 AM, October 27, 2005  

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• Cows are considered sacred animals in some cultures. Every single one of you f*cking Westerners should stop eating beef. Your culture is sick! How can you slaughter and eat such beautiful animals?

  By  Anonymous, at 1:32 PM, November 16, 2005  

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• Dog meat is meat. It is like beef of pork. Meat is food. Westerners eat crocodiles, ostriches, worms, snails, kangaroos and just about everything other than dogs and cats. If dog meat is disgusting, then those are not?
  PS kangaroo and ostrich has been good business for Australian meat processing companies since madcow disease started.

  By  Anonymous, at 7:48 PM, November 29, 2005  

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• Tyler is such a hypocrit! saying anyone who eats animals should be beaten and then eaten in a stew is ridiculous! In my opinion all animals are here on earth so we can eat them!

  By  Anonymous, at 6:20 PM, November 30, 2005  

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• I've never heard some much idiocy and narrow mindedness in my life.
  
  If you eat Beef, Pork or Chicken you should not comment on this subject. Many people in rural parts of US eats squirrels and squirrel brain and you have the audacity to point the finger at Korea? If you go to France or any other parts of Europe, raw horsemeat is commonly eaten yet I don't hear people having uproar about that. Furthermore, what do you think they put in the animal feed in the US? Rendered protein that's what. What do you think is in rendered meat? Oh nothing that exotic: Chicken shit, chicken feathers, dead cows, road kill and that's right some cats and dogs for good measure. Do you think its natural and god's law to feed that to cows and pigs? What is crueler killing the dogs in that manner or caging up animals and feeding them stuff like that? How do you think mad cows got around? You are all essentially eating your pets so unless you’re a vegetarian you have no right to comment on this and to use it as an excuse to cover up your xenophobia and feel superior.
  
  
  And BTW Tyler, does God often talk to you and tell you what you should eat? I would look into that. According to Old Testament you shouldn't eat swine but I'm sure you eat that too.
  
  Lastly there are bigger problems on this earth like, pollution, war in Iraq, child abuse, and the ballooning deficit to name a few topics. A minority of people eating dog meat is low on my priorities in the light of people dying and suffering needlessly so I would hardly agree with chavagirl2003@yahoo.com comment that "is the worst thing I heave heard of in a very long time". What world do you live in girl.

  By  Anonymous, at 12:38 PM, December 16, 2005  

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• Asians consider the barbaric culture they choose, commonplace and "just a part of the culture."
  
  The torture does not end with the torture of dogs and cats, the Asian abuse many species of animals.
  The slaughter of dolphin and whale occur every year, many on the endangered species list. This does not deter the Asians whatsoever. It appears they have not a thought in the world for conservation.
  There are the bear bile farms that en capture bears for their entire lives. There is the child sex slave trade. The primate abuse occurs in many facets, laboratories, the trade for the laboratories, and the for human consumption trade.
  This continent is the most polluted continent on earth, with 3 meters of pollution. The way the Asians kill the animals they eat is like something we see in no other culture. In this race I see a substantial increase in the cruelty they subject animals to, like no culture I have witnessed. I am appalled.
  
  We are told not to hate. It is hard not to hate the people that find this acceptable. God forgive me.
  
  Dawn Bechtold
  www.usanimalprotection.org

  By  Anonymous, at 8:23 AM, February 12, 2006  

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• Dawn Bechtold said, "We are told not to hate. It is hard not to hate the people that find this acceptable."
  
  By your logic then we should all hate the white race for the amount of atrocity that they have inflicted on the colored race throughout history. That is a far worse crime than a small percentage of the people who eat dog meat. It seems like people are looking for a reason to hate a race.

  By  Anonymous, at 10:50 PM, April 01, 2006  

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• Stop that anthropocentric rubbish!
  
  'Dog meat is meat.' - So is yours, youngster.
  
  Is the Korean so-called 'culture' (and its 'exercisers') vile? - It certainly is. And, indeed, so is that of masai, the cantonese, the japanese and so forth. It doesn't mean I am not disgusted enough with the european, etc. tradition of animal-killing. Don't bring that argument in, for it isn't relevant (I am sure, any normal man or woman should be disgusted by killing any animal, for any reason).
  Dawn Bechtold, I share your insight (insight, for it's more than an opinion, it's a fact), fully.

  By  Anonymous, at 11:48 PM, May 18, 2006  

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• What a nonsense: 'we eat things in the US that disgust others'! You speak as if the core of the matter is in one's feelings and not in the fact.
  Yes, I am disgusted - disgusted exclusively - and ad infinitum - by any carnage on the part of the 'man' to any non-human, including the poor things whose stolen life you stuff your belly with (yes, lad, I am vegetarian). But to say that killing dogs (or any other animal your likes haven't the 'cultural' inclination of killing) must be acceptable, is a total aberration at its best.
  Mind, it is not about what one finds, it is about the facts. Else, I could kill you and vindicate my action by claiming that 'some cultures do it'. Curse your or anybody else's opinion - you have a life and cherish it. Then, for curse's sake, mind that every dog and every cat and every other animal cherishes its life no less. That is the point of the matter, not an opinion here and there.
  And those who do this with animals (dogs, in this case) - be they cursed, squalid slaves!..

  By  Art Khachatrian, at 11:49 PM, May 18, 2006  

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• AR Online
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  Illegal Bear Bile Farms in China - Some of the black bears at the Dianchuan and Dianye bile factories in China's southwestern Yunnan province gnawed at their own paws to relieve the pain. Others in the cramped cages were not so lucky, having had their teeth and claws sawed off so they would not hurt their minders. Cramped, ill and in agony, hundreds, possibly more than 1,000, endangered black bears got good news when Chinese journalists uncovered two illegal bear bile factories where they were milked for their bile for use in Chinese medicine, state television said on Monday. Footage of one factory filmed by undercover reporters aired on China Central Television (CCTV) on Monday, showing the bears in small cages with surgically implanted tubes and valves for collection of bile. ``This valve is just like a bicycle valve, there is a spring in it. If you pull the spring down, the bile dribbles out, and if you pull it up it stops,'' the unidentified director of the factory said. ``The bear is used to it.'' Yet the footage showed bears yelping in pain as keepers extracted the bright green liquid, which has been harvested for thousands of years in Asia and is believed to be useful in treating fever, liver illnesses and sore eyes. At the second factory, the bears have their teeth and claws removed so they are not a threat to their handlers. ``All their teeth have been sawed off. The teeth were quite long before we sawed them off. We cut off the claws, so you can't see them now,'' an unidentified bear keeper at Dianye Factory said.
  Inhumane Conditions
  
  Bear bile farms began in the 1980s in Asia after North Korea developed the method of bile tapping with catheters. China quickly adopted the practice thinking it would reduce the number of bears killed in the wild for their bile. The industry in China mushroomed in the early 1990s when the number of captive bears hit 10,000 in 480 bear farms. It was also then that bear bile prices rocketed to $2,400 per kg. With the advent of synthetic bear bile and greater awareness of the inhumane method of harvesting, the price has since plunged to 2,000 yuan per kg, according to some reports. However, the China Daily reported in August last year that one restaurant sold bear bile for 1,800 yuan per 100 ml. The paper said collecting bile from live bears had been banned by the Chinese Government and that black bears were protected by the Chinese Wildlife Protection Law. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners say there are herbs that serve the same purposes as bear bile, which is drawn from their gallbladders up to twice a day. And animal rights activists have been up in arms over the squalid and inhumane conditions in the illegal factories. The surgery on the bears, often with unsterilised equipment, often leads to chronic infections, some have said. The London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), said bears living in cramped cages or metal crates suffer from sores, bone deformities, bad food, poor hygiene and poor veterinary care. The group launched a campaign in May protesting China's bid for the 2008 Olympics, saying its animal welfare record, particularly the prevalence of horrific bear bile farms, should disqualify the country. In July, China won the right to host the games.

  By  Anonymous, at 10:50 PM, May 22, 2006  

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• In the Japanese fishing village of Taiji, fishermen are rounding up and slaughtering hundreds and even thousands of dolphins right now.
  After driving pods of dolphins into shallow coves, the fishermen kill the dolphins, slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. Thrashing about, the dolphins take as long as six minutes to die. The water turns red with their blood and the air fills with their screams.
  
  This brutal massacre — the largest scale dolphin kill in the world — goes on for six months of every year. Even more shocking, the captive dolphin industry is an accomplice to the kill.
  
  Taiji – the Killing Zone
  
  Between October 1st - December 13th 2004 the fishermen of Taiji r ported the capture 609 dolphins (389 bottlenose dolphins and 220 Risso’s dolphins) to the Fisheries section of Wakayama Prefecture. While most of the 609 dolphins were slaughtered for human consumption, dolphin trainers selected some of the young and unblemished dolphins for use in captive dolphin swim programs and dolphin shows.
  
  
  A huge amount of blood is swirling with the currents after a
  pod of Risso’s dolphins has been eradicated in the most
  gruesome way imaginable. The dolphins fought for their lives
  even as their guts were ripped from their bellies and blood
  gushed out of their blowholes.
  Photo by Genna Naccache
  During the hunting season that began October 1st 2003 and ended March 30th 2004 the fishermen of Taiji killed 1,165 dolphins:
  
  444 Striped dolphins
  197 bottlenose dolphins
  102 Pantropical spotted dolphins
  293 Risso’s dolphins
  117pilot whales
  12 false killer whales
  
  In that same period they captured 78 dolphins for sale to dolphinaria:
  
  67 bottlenose dolphins
  6 Risso’s dolphins
  5 pseudo orcas
  
  A measure of our success
  
  Japanese fishermen kill the largest number of dolphins anywhere in the world and dolphins and porpoises face grave danger in Japan’s coastal waters when the annual hunt begins. This year the drive fishery, a method in which dolphins are forced ashore and hacked to death, has taken place in Taiji and Futo. We traveled to both of these fishing villages to document the massacres and expose them to the world.
  
  In Taiji the annual dolphin hunt starts October 1st and continues through March 30th. Here, the massacre of dolphins is strongly encouraged by three local dolphinariums that purchase show-quality dolphins at a high cost and ship some of them off to othe facilities in Japan and abroad.
  
  
  The slaughterhouse is covered with blue tarp
  to prevent us from videotaping the bloody scene.
  Photo by Helene O’Barry
  We were able to film the entire capture procedure in January last year when more than 100 bottlenose dolphins were forced ashore and some 20 dolphins selected by dolphinaria. Several dolphins were killed during the selection process and our powerful footage was recently aired by the BBC in a documentary entitled "Dolphin Hunters" and has been viewed by more than 300 million people worldwide.
  
  This kind of major international exposure is the last thing the fishermen and the dolphin captivity industry want, and it came as no surprise to us that they were fuming with anger upon our r turn to Taiji in October.
  
  Since the beginning of our campaign to expose the barbaric methods used to capture and kill dolphins, the fishermen have gone to extreme effort and expense to prevent us from carrying out our documentary work. What they are doing to the dolphins is so brutal; they know they have to conceal it from the r st of the world to avoid a huge international outcry.
  
  
  The fishermen have driven a large pod of bottlenose
  dolphins into the killing cove. They are cutting off the
  dolphins’ escape with two nets placed 50 feet apart.
  Photo by Helene O’Barry
  They used to carry out the massacres in a large lagoon by a public road, but the mounting exposure has forced them into one last hiding place; a small cove hidden between two mountains. The cove is aart of a public park and tourists from all of Japan come here to walk the picturesque trails along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world.
  
  During the drive fishery season, which lasts six months out of the year, the fishermen take the area into their possession, employing exceptionally hostile tactics to keep westerners and Japanese tourists away from the cove while dolphins are being killed. In doing so they have created a threatening and sinister atmosphere in an otherwise beautiful and friendly village.
  
  Hiding their activities the best they can has been part of the fishermen’s policy for years but they have now taken their cover-up to a new, fanatic level. Supported by local authorities they have banned us from climbing the mountain from where we can see the killing cove.
  
  They are so scared of our cameras; they have tied barbed wire around the trees we used to climb to photograph the massacres and at the top of the mountain have installed a hideous wall made of fabric and plastic to block our view. They have tied metal chains to trees everywhere along the paths leading to the killing cove. Attached to the chains are signs with hand-written words of warning: "Keep Out!" and "No trespassing!"
  
  
  The fishermen have erected a tall canvas
  wall at the top of the mountain to prevent
  us from filming the dolphin massacres.
  Photo by Helene O’Barry
  After the massacre the water remains red with blood for hours and the ludicrous signs warning people of non-existent dangers such as "Falling rocks!" and "Mud-slides!" are not removed until after the sea has washed the blood away and all evidence of the butchery has vanished.
  
  The fishermen have even erected a large piece of fabric across the mouth of the cove to prevent us from photographing the bloodbath from a boat and as further proof of their deep-rooted fear of the truth being known to the world have placed a gigantic piece of blue tarp across the entire killing cove so we can’t film the massacres, not even from a helicopter.
  
  The fishermen have succeeded in hiding the massacres almost to perfection but their strategy is backfiring in a way they probably did not anticipate. The dolphin slaughter is surrounded by so much contemptible deception and is so profoundly guarded; it has raised much curiosity among the visiting Japanese tourists who wonder what the secrecy is all about. We spoke to many of them and the one thing they kept asking was: "What are the fishermen doing behind the blue tarp that’s so terrible that no one is allowed to see it?"
  
  The extreme cover-up is undermining one of the fishermen’s principal justifications for killing dolphins: That it’s a tradition they are proud of. If they are truly proud of killing dolphins, then why are they so frantic about hiding it? The fact that they hide the bloodbath behind blue tarp, chains, barbed wire and walls of fabric reveals that they are well aware that the dolphin massacres, once fully exposed, will be viewed as deplorable by the r st of the world, including the Japanese people.
  
  The fishermen spend a lot of time waving large signs in front of our camera lenses, yelling, "Don’t take photos!" What they are really saying is, "We have something to hide."
  
  By acting so hostile and secretive, they involuntarily bring more attention to themselves and the dolphin massacres. As a young girl visiting from Tokyo put it: "I never realized that dolphins are being killed here until I saw that creepy-looking blue plastic covering the lagoon."
  
  
  The bloody cove after the massacre.
  Photo by Genna Naccache
  
  
  
  © 2004, One Voice, Earth Island Institute, Elsa Nature Conservancy. All Rights Reserved.

  By  Anonymous, at 10:53 PM, May 22, 2006  

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• 3,505 11:48 am PDT, May 22 Daniel Martelli United States These people who participate in these killings are scum. Animals don't engauge in this type of cruel killings. Hell no, we should nuke them.

  By  Anonymous, at 10:56 PM, May 22, 2006  

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• Culture vs. Cruelty
  
  News: Controversy over the treatment of live animals in urban Asian markets rages on. Asian-American leaders have accused animal-welfare activists of racism, and the activists call the merchants callous animal torturers. A new bill in California aims to end the battle once and for all.
  
  
  For years, animal-welfare activists and merchants in urban Asian markets across the US and Canada have been at loggerheads over the treatment of turtles, fish, frogs, and other live animals the markets sell for food.
  
  To a visitor accustomed to neatly-packaged supermarket flesh, some of the markets' wares are undeniably disturbing. Fish flop desperately in a thin layer of water. Skinned amphibians are stacked up like frog-shaped globs of pale pink jelly. But is it really cruelty?
  
  Market owners say efforts to change their traditions smack of racism; animal-welfare advocates say culture isn't an excuse for cruelty. And local leaders take the politically expedient position of doing essentially nothing.
  
  After a string of legal and political victories for markets in San Francisco, where the war has raged hotter than anywhere else, one California legislator has introduced a bill which would, if passed, clearly define what constitutes animal cruelty in such markets. Although activists' hopes have been buoyed by the Feb. 24 introduction of Assembly Bill 2479, the bill and the case against the markets still face some major hurdles -- as does the vexed cause of protecting the market animals.
  
  Meanwhile, many liberals (and now some state politicians) seeking to pick an easy side are befuddled. Who wants to be called a racist? Who wants to see animals suffer?
  
  Animal-rights activists contend the battle is not just about compassion; the live-animal trade, they say, poses dangers also to public health and the environment.
  
  For five years in San Francisco, home to America's biggest Chinatown, animal-welfare organizations have been sponsoring legislation, filing lawsuits, and browbeating market owners in an effort to get San Francisco's live-animal trade shut down altogether. But early on, public opinion quickly turned against the activists when media-savvy Asian business owners charged them with cultural insensitivity.
  
  "It's unfair to the Asian American [community]. Why don't [animal activists] go down to Fisherman's Wharf, where they boil crabs live?" says Pius Lee, the city's port commissioner and owner of the buildings where two markets are housed. Activists say they have, but that conditions in live-animal markets are much worse.
  
  San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Nathan Winograd doesn't buy the racism charges. "Using the culture card was a strategy they used publicly," he says. In private meetings with the merchants, though, Winograd claims, "We never heard ... that displaying a turtle with its organs exposed was any kind of heritage."
  
  Even Chinatown isn't united on the issue. Vicky Lynn of Asians for Humans, Animals and Nature vehemently refutes any cultural-insensitivity arguments. "People used to bind their feet," she says. "Do you want to keep that kind of culture?"
  
  The animal advocates insist they are just trying to make the markets obey the same animal-cruelty laws that everyone else follows, regardless of cultural heritage. "My personal feeling is that the cruelty-to-animals law is being violated all the time," says Richard Schulke, director of SF's Animal Control and Welfare.
  
  Eric Mills of San Francisco's Action for Animals said he has observed frogs killed by placing several in a paper bag at once, after which, "the butcher would take a hammer and go whackety-whack-whack." Those still alive were skinned with the others.
  
  Michael Lau, a spokesman for Chinatown's Sun Duck market, describes the standard way to kill a turtle: "First we try to get it to stick its head out, and then when it does, we chop it off right there and then. But if we can't, we'll break the shell and then take his head off, which usually takes a minute and a half." Schulke said a turtle's head can live for an hour after being severed, exacerbating the cruelty when the head isn't killed directly with a brain pith. It's grisly, but experts like the University of California-Davis's Joy Mench say there's no better way.
  
  The State Fish and Game Warden Dan Andreen told the MoJo Wire that his agency suspects there are other violations of state law, such as trade in illegal species, on a regular basis in the markets. "A lot of the time we go in the front, and the stuff's going out the back door in a hurry," he says.
  
  Mills contends that the willingness of local legislators to look the other way has much to do with financial contributions from Asian business owners and the quickly growing Asian voter base.
  
  He's not alone. David Lee, executive director of the Chinese-American Voter Education Committee observes that the lack of action by city leaders "speaks to the power of the Chinese-American vote and community."
  
  Public and ecological health
  Animal advocates say it's more than an issue of compassion; it's a public health problem. The animals are kept in cardboard boxes and buckets of dirty water. Parasites and bacterial infection are not uncommon for the animals displayed in such conditions.
  
  Frogs are often kept in crowded cages and buckets, and are never fed.
  
  Mills, for one, has called the market owners themselves racists for selling their Chinese clientele allegedly dangerous food. "Most of the market clientele are Asian Americans. Their health is being put at tremendous risk. Neither Safeway nor Albertson's would be allowed to sell these diseased, parasite-ridden, and dying animals for food. This smacks of racism, in my view," Mills wrote in a local paper.
  
  According to the Food and Drug Administration, while turtle meat is prone to salmonella (as is chicken) and should be handled carefully, cooking eliminates any danger. San Francisco Health Department spokesman Jack Breslin says while the animal-welfare groups put a "health label" on their mission, they exaggerate the health risks -- that some question the meat's safety simply becasue it lacks a supermarket's "antiseptic appearance."
  
  Appearances aside, there's more than salmonella at issue here: California veterinarian Lexie Endo examined more than 200 turtles taken from live markets in 1996. She said that 30 percent of the usually long-lived creatures died within 10 days, even in her expert care, because they were so diseased and malnourished.
  
  Furthermore, even the animals that don't end up in markets may suffer. Demand for certain species also depletes wild populations of turtles in the American South and East. According to Craig Hoover of the World Wildlife Fund's TRAFFIC program, "We're seeing a dramatic increase in adult softshell turtles going out of the [US]."
  
  Virginia Handley of the Fund for Animals says the frogs and turtles, both of which can find their way into the wild when some animal-liberation groups "rescue" them, are destructive to California's ecosystem, as the turtles displace and the bullfrogs eat native Western pond turtles, garter snakes, and smaller frogs.
  
  What's in store
  A 1998 lawsuit filed by an animal rights coalition to ban the sale of live animals for food was perhaps the most dramatic episode, and the hardest lost, for the animal welfare camp. An activist coalition sued a group of 12 markets on charges of animal cruelty and violations of public health and safety. But the activists were unable to pin any specific instances of animal cruelty on the markets. What the plaintiffs cited as a routine and especially inhumane method of slaughter -- peeling the shells off of live turtles which refuse to stick out their heads -- was not ruled as cruel. Turns out that turtles, with their natural armor and heads which remain alive for an hour after decapitation, are just incredibly difficult to kill. Neither animal experts nor the activists could suggest a quicker or more humane method of killing the beasts.
  
  The trial was certainly a setback, but the animal-welfare camp hasn't given up yet. At the moment, Mills and Handley are focusing on opposing another state bill, California AB 238, which would permit local governments to regulate live-animal markets instead of the state.
  
  The latest bill has a long way to go before it becomes law, if it ever does. It will, at the very least, help distinguish between what constitutes acceptable cultural tradition and what crosses the line into animal cruelty. Of course, simply defining what constitutes cruelty does not necessarily make the law any easier to enforce. Even if the animal advocates see the new bill become law, this looks like one battle that will rage on for years to come.

  By  Anonymous, at 11:10 PM, May 22, 2006  

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• I am a vegetarian. Intellectually, I know being a vegetarian is best for our planet, best for my own health and well-being, and the least cruel to my own future generations and other species on the earth, as well as in the here and now to my fellow man. To those who come to a different conclusion, your science and/or logic = faulty.
  
  I can not comprehend why people believe it is fine to eat veal or pork but not dog. Surely you don't think than no one ever kept a cow or a pig for a PET. When it comes to cruelty, little approaches US veal production. Personally I'd BBQ the dogs myself, if that's what it took to provide starving children a hot meal.
  
  Pigs make excellent, loyal, trainable, protective, intelligent, loving pets. Also, pork is so extremely close to human flesh, that pig parts can be used as transplants for humans. Not to mention, that tribal cannibals recognized the similarity in taste and called the meat of their human victims Long Pork.
  
  Pork is forbidden by the Bible, unless you pick and choose what to live by and what to persecute others over.
  
  To me, any rational adult who has choice (as in not on the brink of starvation) and chooses to eat the flesh of animals, is barbaric. A person who chooses to eat animals then criticizes others for doing the same is barbaric and also a hypocrite. I choose to be neither.
  
  You too get to choose what sort of person you want to be, everytime you eat. It has nothing to do with what we believe. We are the sum of our choices, our deeds. It really is as simple as that.
  
  Furthermore, America is a barbarian. We are the least cultured, most aggressive, biggest consumer per capita on earth. We waste more. We start wars. We follow a socio-path. We are greedy, spoiled, and child-like. We constantly shirk our responsibilities, refuse to clean up after ourselves, and won't listen to anyone else. We are the snotty little fat kid who bullies everyone else on the playground. Then we wonder why others don't adore us.
  
  How can our country expect others to give up their ancient traditions overnight, when America could't do without junk food and television for a month? The truth hurts. Doesn't it?
  
  Open your eyes, America. We have it in us. Let's grow up, instead of just growing fatter.

  By  dailybread, at 2:53 AM, November 06, 2007  

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• The process generally goes like this:
  
  Dogs are acquired from the streets, the pound, or in some cases, peoples' back yards.
  
  Dogs are kept in cages until ready to be butchered.
  
  Dogs are beaten to death for long periods of time. Why? The Koreans believe that dog meat acts as a 'natural sex enhancer', and the longer the dog suffers, the better it is supposed to work. It's commonly enjoyed by older men with impotency.
  
  The funny thing is, this 'tradition' has only been established for thirty years or so. This is not a practice unique to the Korean culture, either. That's what makes it wrong.

  By  Luabo, at 2:00 PM, December 05, 2007  

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• I can not believe how disgusting these people really are, You say it is culture, but what would make anyone think that trapping wild bears and using (usualy) unsanitized surgical equipment to cut a hole to extract bile is acceptable? that is just the tip of the iceburg!! Go to youtube.com and there is a video of the dolphin killing, I wish that it would have a link and show a video of the fishermen in the back of dump trucks with their guts being ripped out!!! and now i have also seen videos of up to 20 cats in a cage the size of a crab pot they are then slowly pulled up to the top and strangled! and dog killing is even worse!!! how could anyone think that it is right to kill an animal as affectionate as a dog??? seriously not to mention the poor conditions in their live food market!!!!! and I am not trying to be racist at all, just disgusted

  By  Anonymous, at 6:14 PM, December 10, 2007  

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• Luabo stated, "The funny thing is, this 'tradition' has only been established for thirty years or so."
  
  Perhaps you are correct about Dog Meat Stew- I don't know. However the tradition of eating dogs in Korea dates back to at least the fourth century AD. Likewise Confucius ate dog in China. In Germany, dog is a traditional food. They still eat dog legally there, although it was banned for sale since the 1980's. Before that there were dog meat shops. Indonesia, India, many places around the world consume dog meat. In Canada dog meat is legal, but the dog meat must be approved by meat inspectors before it can be sold or used in restaurants. Most primarily Muslim countries do not eat dog as the meat of carnivores is considered unclean according to the teachings of Islam.
  
  I am not advocating the eating of dog or other flesh of animals, nor do I condone any animal slaughtered for animal based products. Just sharing some trivia. I too am vegetarian. I'd be a vegan if I could give up honey and my sex life. Sorry, just wanted to try to lighten the mood.

  By  hillhippie, at 3:35 AM, December 24, 2007  

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• I agree wholeheartedly with those who have said that... if we're going to kill an animal for food, be it a cow or a dog, we can't then turn around to others and tell them they're not allowed to eat some other type of animal.
  In this way, although I absolutely adore dogs, and would prefer that none were killed, I don't think that westerners should be judging the asians for eating them.
  What I _do_ find deplorable, however, is the manner in which these animals are being treated and killed. To beat a dog to death on the premise of making it taste better?! Has the world gone mad?!!! To make _any_ animal suffer in that way (be it a pig, cow or other animal) is very wrong.
  
  You have defended your culture/tradition to eat dogs, but you seem to be missing the main point in your defense...
  You're ignoring the fact that it is the unnecessarily cruel treatment of the animals that people most object to. Do you honestly think it's acceptable to say that this cruel treatment is part of your culture and should therefore be accepted and ignored?
  
  There have been cruel traditions around the world that have long since been banned... We should be proud to be a civilised world, in which we have some decency... enough decency to know that it's unacceptable to cause such suffering to innocent animals.
  
  ...and, by the way, it wouldn't matter which country it was found to be happening in... this is not an issue of racism. A country should never defend this sort of behaviour.

  By  Anonymous, at 2:53 AM, February 07, 2008  

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• WE ARE STRAYING FAR FROM THE ISSUE. THE ISSUE IS NOT WHAT IT IS MORALLY RIGHT OR WRONG TO EAT BUT THE LIFE WE LIVE AND HOW WE DIE.
  
  ALL LIVING CREATURES HAVE A RIGHT TO A DECENT LIFE.
  
  I DONT CARE WHO EATS ME WHEN I DIE BUT I WOULD ASK I LIVE WELL AND DIE SWIFTLY WITH MINIMUM OF STRESS AND PAIN.

  By  russell, at 7:48 AM, March 17, 2008  

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• I agree with the post above me.
  
  It is abhorrent to me that these people eat dogs, but more important is how the dogs get treated while alive, and also how they die.
  
  This is what makes the Koreans who participate in this "tradition" (as not all do), inhuman.

  By  Beeble, at 12:19 AM, May 19, 2008  

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• Something we can all do:
  
  Do not buy the following:
  
  Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, LG, Kia
  
  If they get 20% less sales and their economy gets affected maybe they'll start treating their food better. Maybe they'll start a "culture" of kindness instead of barbarism.

  By  Beeble, at 12:23 AM, May 19, 2008  

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