In the U.S. military, I served in South Korea for a few years and then lived there with my South Korean girlfriend after the military for a while before returning to the States to finish grad school. Back then, they had "dog farms" that bred dogs for food to be sold to the markets like "chicken farms"... +1 million dogs were slaughtered for food consumption each year. The entire time I was in South Korea...I only saw Asians and White people eating dog meat. It was common to find some restaurants and street peddlers selling soups, tacos, and other meals with dog meat. It was not banned and you just needed to be very careful about what you ate in South Korea especially if the meat is ground meat...you're not able to differentiate beef, pork, dog or some other red meat from each other. How did they ban dog meat? They voted in a new President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee...dog lovers with lots of dogs. Today, I heard from some Asian friends visiting from South Korea that said things have changed in South Korea. They said about 7% of the population still regularly consume dog meat because they believe in its medicinal properties like many other Asian cultures. It's most consumed by South Koreans...not by immigrants or migrants. I talked to a few immigrants back then before I left South Korea. They lived near the military base, they owned dogs and they did not trust their South Korean neighbors or White Europeans. Today, according to my friends, it's mostly consumed by White Europeans who do not have access to dog meat back in their European country but then are introduced to dog meat by an Asian South Korean friend in an Asian country. Bosintang wrbtrader
I still have trauma from a market in China watching* a cage with a cat in it dropped into a cauldron of boiling water, the cat was drowning on the water but before or was dead the guy yanked it's skin clean off, and it was still alive. He essentially blanched it in hot water like a tomato. Then he chopped the head off with a big clever. Could have done that at the start but that's just how little regard some have for animal suffering. *I was a market stall row away and was genuinely frozen in horror which I never thought could happen to me.
Hey, has anyone noticed that despite all their hand-wringing concern about migrants killing peoples' pets, it's only the MAGA GOP that has people in it on record as being actual pet killers? Anyone? The Republican Pet-Killing Brigade For all the bogus furor MAGA world has raised over immigrant pet-eating, the real animal slayers are pursuing high office and making policy for the GOP. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-republican-pet-killing-brigade/