Tomorrow is Bok-nal, loosely translated as “to win-over hottest day” – subdivided into three days in July an August, where Korean ancestors especially men, enjoyed devouring dog meat in soup . according to 16th Century royal physician Heo, Jun’s Dong-ui-bo-gam (translates as “valued Eastern medicine manual”) considered the origin of Oriental medicine in Korea : dog meat is good for over-coming Summer heat . thus it was purely for the sake of health, this sleazy tradition came into local life and still remains today .
it is not regulated at all even today, and the sanitation of simply keeping dogs in tight cages, along with killing it painfully with electric shock has been criticized for a long time, but the government simply did not want to have anything to do with it . it came into Global knowledge by the first SEOUL Olympics in 1988, when its serving restaurants began retreating into back-alleys and rural areas where foreigners rarely yonder . and as the nation became wealthy and cosmopolitan : dog meat gradually substituted into young chicken and even eels .
but the lethal strike to crush this cruel market, has come from unrelenting animal-protection groups as well as increasing pets and their lovers over the Peninsula . according to Agriculture Economy Research institute : Korean pet industry has grown almost four times over the past four years at W2,290,000,000,000 in 2016, and expected to even double that another four years after . thus a news reel today with images of an open market with rows of dogs in cages (sob) showed the chairman of Moran Market Animal Dealers Association (Yeah, right : repent your shameful sin and go live in a sewer) weeping their market demand has decreased 50 times (good, and this has to come-down to nil).
– and No, we cannot show any horrifying photos here, iTaewon BLog –
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