The violent horrors of the Asian Dog Meat Trade is still taking place throughout several countries in Asia. Animal rights organizations are stepping in to help including Lady Freethinker. The nonprofit, which aims to end the suffering of animals and humans, launched a campaign to help stop this barbaric act.
By: Heather Newgen | Twitter: @hnvoluntourist
Los Angeles-based animal rights organization Lady Freethinker launched an awareness campaign in South Korea and China urging citizens to keep dogs off their dinner plates and to treat them like family. The move continues LFT’s ongoing efforts to stop Asian dog meat trade.
The first set of ads was introduced on buses in Gimpo, South Korea late last year. This month ads began running in on China on Feb. 10 in the city of Shenyang’s Xita district stop — an area notorious for cruel dog meat restaurants.
Created in cooperation with Save Korean Dogs, LFT’s Korean ads have already reached thousands of people with messages translating to, “Dogs are not food but family,” and “Please do not eat me.”
Meanwhile, LFT’s Chinese bus stop ad – which began this week – depicts a loving family with a dog, with a message in Chinese reading, “Dogs are family, not food.”
BY THE NUMBERS
There are an estimated 17,000 dog meat farms throughout South Korea, with some two million dogs slaughtered for human consumption each year. It is the only country in the world with large, factory-style dog farms, where the animals are housed in filthy conditions without adequate food, water or veterinary care.
China has a booming black market for dog and cat meat, slaughtering approximately 10 million dogs and 4 million cats annually. Criminal gangs kidnap the dogs from their families or shoot them in the streets with poison darts, then cram in tiny cages and truck them — sometimes for days — with no food or water to restaurants and slaughterhouses.
In both China and Korea, many of the dogs are hung, torched alive, or electrocuted in the belief that torture will make the meat taste better or boost the virility of those who consume it.
The 2019 campaign follows last year’s crusade that included sponsoring a bus ad in Jeonju, South Korea, imploring people not to slaughter and eat dogs.
VICTORY IS POSSIBLE
With worldwide pressure from advocates such as LFT to stop the killings and consumption of dog meat, change is on the horizon. Last November, South Korea’s biggest slaughterhouse closed, adding to an ever-expanding list of meat farms and killing facilities that have gone out of business.
In addition to posting ads, LFT works directly with rescuers on the ground in China and South Korea, helping provide food, warmth and veterinary care for dogs and cats rescued from the meat trade. In 2018 alone, LFT supported the rescue of 24 dogs from China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival and contributed to the care of hundreds more.
The organization continues to collect petitions to ban the Asian dog meat trade and will keep campaigning until the inhumane practice is a thing of the past.