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E-Bosin.com
A website selling dog meat in Korea is shut down through grass roots efforts
In April of 2007, a retailer based in Sungnam’s Moran Market launched a website where consumers could buy dog meat directly from the internet. The website, www.e-bosin.com, offered “premium” and “standard” meat for purchase as well as a variety of recipes for cooking the meat.
The site was created by Jo, Chang-Geun along with Ko, Se-Hoon, a dog meat vendor who claimed he was hoping to be a pioneer in the otherwise “untapped” online dog meat market.
Shortly after its launch, the website sparked heated debate amongst those on both sides of the dog meat issue, flooding the site’s message board with arguments of cruelty vs. culture. A wave of protest letters to the city of Sungnam soon followed, and in early July the owners removed the photos of dog meat and shut the site down.
This is a very special victory for animal protection, as the movement happened almost entirely within Korea, indicating a growing sentiment against dog eating and cruelty towards animals. However, where grass roots efforts were successful in bringing the site to an end, the Korean government once again abandoned their responsibility to protect animals and enforce the law.
Commenting on the issue, one official from Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said, “Under the Food Sanitation Law, animals that are not examined according to livestock processing regulations are not counted as livestock. However, we do not take strong measures to regulate the practice since we have a tradition and culture of eating dog meat and many people enjoy it.”