Dogs go missing before dog meat ban in South Korea

Animal rights activist inspecting empty cages in a former abandoned dog slaughterhouse in Pyeongtaek
JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Electric shock batons leaning against a wall next to rusty cages set the scene of an abandoned dog slaughterhouse in a city in South Korea.
The site in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, offers a portrait of an industry on the verge of disappearing, with the country's dog meat ban comes into force next year.
It also raises a question: what happened to the hundreds of thousands of dogs bred for human consumption?
Dog meat, popular among older people and in rural areas, has lost favor among young South Koreans, who view dogs as pets.
In January 2024, the country passed a law banning the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for meat. When it comes into force in February 2027, offenders could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
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As the ban approaches, the industry quickly disappears. Government data indicates that in 2024, between 400,000 and 450,000 dogs were raised for meat. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that only 20,000 remain.
To help breeders with the transition, the government offered up to 600,000 won ($390) for each dog discarded. So far, however, the fate of these animals has not been tracked.
"Our job is to check that the dogs are not on farms or in slaughterhouses before handing over compensation. We are not involved in what happens to the dogs," a ministry inspector told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
"They have already been eaten"
Animal rights activist playing with dogs rescued from slaughterhouses at a shelter run by the animal rights group 'KARA' in Paju
JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Data obtained by a parliamentarian indicates that, as of February, only 623 dogs had been adopted and fewer than 500 were sent to shelters.
Animal welfare groups and former breeders believe that the rest were euthanized.
"If many rescued dogs had entered adoption programs, animal rights groups like ours would know," said Kim Young-hwan of the organization CARE.
In more than two ways Over the decades, CARE says it has rescued and given up for adoption around 2,500 dogs from breeding facilities, most of them sent abroad.
Dogs raised for meat are large, while South Koreans tend to prefer small dogs as pets in apartments.
"In South Korea, for a long time there was a differentiation between dogs raised for meat and pets," Ju Yeong-bong, a former breeder, told AFP.
When asked about the whereabouts of thousands of dogs, he acknowledged that they had perhaps "already been eaten".
Legal contradiction
Animal skulls under an empty cage in a former abandoned dog slaughterhouse in Pyeongtaek.
JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 1,265 dog farms - 82% of the total - announced their closure by the end of May.
Ju, who is also a Christian pastor, opened his farm in 1994, after concluding that he could not live off his ministry alone.
"I think the dog meat ban is a betrayal. It was imposed for political reasons, without sufficient dialogue or measures to protect our livelihoods," he told AFP.
For activists, the legal change also closes a loophole on the treatment of dogs, said lawyer Park Joo-yeon, head of the PNR group.
Unlike cattle or pigs, dogs have never been classified as livestock in Korea. South. This means that the industry operated for decades without rules on humane breeding and slaughter.
At the Pyeongtaek site, AFP journalists saw abandoned tools apparently used to electrocute dogs.
The organization KARA rescued 29 dogs in May from the Pyeongtaek farm and reported their owner for animal cruelty, a practice prohibited in the country.

Source: G1