What the Olympics don’t want you to see.
Dogs and even puppies are sold openly for food in Moran market, Seongnam, the country’s largest open-air dog market – contradicting claims made last year by local authorities that it was closing.
Up to 80,000 dogs are sold and slaughtered at the market each year, to be made into a soup which folklore claims boosts the eater’s sex drive.
Korean authorities have urged citizens not to consume the animals during the Olympics
The trade is a legal gray area, officially frowned upon but tolerated due to huge public demand. One in three Koreans have eaten dog meat at least once, although just one in 20 are regular diners.
Hungry and thirsty, the dogs spend their final hours just yards from restaurants that will chop up their carcasses and serve them up. Open wounds on their fur from fighting betray the dogs’ stress, and blood is splattered across the concrete floor.
Outside their cages, whole, halved and quartered carcasses fill the tables of meat stalls, their fur burnt off but their paws still attached. Cauldrons of boiling dog meat steam away in a shop fronts.
Restaurants serve up bosintang, the dog flesh-rich soup, that many Koreans believe boosts the diner’s sex drive, for 8,000 South Korean won, less than $7.50 or £5.20.
Hacked into chunks, the dark-gray meat is served with green vegetables in a heavily spiced broth and over rice, fermented kimchi vegetables, sliced onion, sesame oil and three types of chili.
The carcass of a large adult dog sells for up to 200,000 South Korean won, $180 or £130, and about $18.00 per pound or £6.50 per kg – making the dog meat trade highly profitable.
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I’ve been too South Korea many times and witnessed this practice. Talking to my friends there, the dogs are bred for eating, much like are rabbits, chickens and cattle. I suggest leaving them to their own customs.
It is really none of anyone’s business.