President of South Korea: Isn’t It Time to Ban Dog Meat Consumption?

South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, recently brought up the subject of banning dog meat consumption to the country’s prime minister in a presidential meeting. 

In the course of the meeting, the topic of improving the care system for abandoned pets was brought up. It was then that Moon allegedly introduced the idea of banning dog meat in South Korea altogether. 

“Hasn’t the time come to prudently consider prohibiting dog meat consumption?” Moon asked the prime minister, according to a presidential spokesperson. 

South Koreans are adopting more and more animals as pets, calling into question the antiquated practice of consuming dog meat in the country. The practice of eating dog and cat meat, while once considered tradition, is now becoming more taboo. 

Current animal protection laws in South Korea only prohibit inhumanely slaughtering dogs and cats for their meat, but do not prohibit consuming these animals. However, the idea of eating dog and cat meat is not popular among younger generations of Koreans, and animal rights groups have been increasing pressure to ban the practice. 

President Moon is a known dog-lover. After becoming president, Moon adopted a four-year-old rescue from an animal shelter, making good on one of his campaign promises to rescue a dog when he became president.  He has several other dogs, including the rescue, living with him in the Blue House in Seoul. 

The dog’s adoption was taken by the public as the president’s way of stating his position in favor of animal rights. Now, it seems he is amping up his support with this suggestion. 

At Karmagawa and SaveTheReef we applaud President Moon for his desire to protect South Korea’s companion animals from the cruel meat industry. He has raised the topic and started the conversation — the world is watching now to see if he and his administration will follow through. Moon is in a position of power to spare millions of innocent lives from the horrible fate of being slaughtered for meat. 

We stand with everyone who is using their power, platform, and voice to protect and defend innocent animals from being killed. If we stand together, we can make changes for the good of animals all over the world!  

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 What do you think about President Moon raising this important topic? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts!

(Cover image: StijnB/Shutterstock)