Dog Meat Festival Cancelled.

If you were planning on attending this year’s “dog meat festival” in Seongnam, Korea, you’re out of luck, the event has been officially cancelled.

Korean activists put a stop to the dog meat industry’s first attempt at a promotional festival in Korea’s Gyeonggi province. Dog meat producers were hoping to normalize the sale of dog meat by giving out free samples and trying to present the industry as being similar to that of cattle or pig farming. For every similarity, there is a major difference though, the biggest being that dog meat is technically illegal in Korea.

Dog meat production is technically illegal but ‘livestock’ production is protected. Dog meat producers are avoiding prosecution by presenting themselves as livestock producers rather than sadistic dog catchers and that is what the festival was all about. The dog meat industry hoped to give the impression that dogs are born, bred, and slaughtered in special facilities like pigs, chickens, and cows when in actuality, many of the dogs used for meat are strays picked up off the street.

Activists used a variety of tactics to get the event cancelled. They gathered signatures, they petitioned the city, and in the end, threatened its organizers that they were “prepared to break the law” if it was required to kill the festival. It worked.

Most people agree that holding a dog meat festival is completely outrageous. Dogs have been bred for centuries to be loving, emotional, and responsive to humans which makes their abuse and torment that much worse.

Let’s all agree right now, as citizens of the same earth, more dog treats less dog meats.