On 12 December 2023, a committee of the Korean National Assembly on agriculture and food passed a special bill that aims at banning the raising of dogs for meat as well as the butchering, distributing and selling of dog meat in the country. The proposed bill, which has overwhelming support from both the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, would give a three-year grace period upon the passage of the bill, with law enforcement slated to begin in 2027. This would mark an important milestone in the fight against dog meat consumption in Korea, as the government and the two main parties seek to sign the bill into law within the year.
On the day of the committee meeting, an association of dog meat farmers held violent protests against the proposed bill and threatened to release 2 million dogs outside the National Assembly where the bill would be passed. They also demanded exorbitant levels of compensation should their businesses be forced to close down, with amounts as much as US$1,500 per dog over a 5 year period being demanded, among others.
According to government statistics, there are around 1,150 dog farms in Korea, 34 butchering businesses, 219 distributors and approximately 1,600 restaurants that sell food made with dog meat.
12 December has been a special day for World Dog Alliance in its fight against dog meat consumption worldwide. In 2018, after years of lobbying by WDA in the U.S.A., the US congress passed the Farm Bill which included an amendment to ban cat and dog meat consumption on 12 December. This is thanks to bipartisan support gained from rounds and rounds of lobbying and as result of the work by three US lobbying firms hired by WDA to work closely with Congressmen from across the aisle.
WDA has campaigned to stop dog meat consumption in Korea since 2014 when WDA’s founder produced “Eating Happiness”, a video documentary filmed across Asia including in Korea in 2014 to reveal the horrifying realities of the dog meat trade in the region. In 2016, WDA launched an online petition that gained over 100,000 British signatures and led the UK Parliament to pass a resolution demanding the UK government to negotiate with its South Korean counterpart to ban the consumption of dog meat. This resulted in the permanent ceasing of dog slaughtering in the Moran Market, the largest dog meat market in Korea at the time, on 12 December 2016. In 2017 WDA held the International Forum on Banning Dog Meat in Seoul, which was supported by Congressman and other animal protection groups, to discuss strategies for formal legislation to ban dog meat in Korea. In 2018, WDA handed in a petition letter to the daughter of the President at the time who attended an event co-organized by WDA and the Korean animal protection group CARE. She forwarded the letter to President Moon Jae-in, underlining WDA’s position that the Korean government should push for formal legislation to ban the eating of dog meat in the country.