South Korea’s parliament on Tuesday handed landmark laws outlawing the nation’s dwindling canine meat trade, together with the consuming and promoting of canine meat, as public requires the ban have mounted considerably amid animal rights campaigns and worries in regards to the nation’s worldwide picture.
Some offended canine farmers stated they plan to file a constitutional attraction and launch rallies in protest, suggesting that heated debate over the ban would proceed.
Dog meat consumption, a centuries-old follow on the Korean Peninsula, is neither explicitly banned nor legalized in South Korea. Recent surveys present extra folks need its ban and a majority of South Koreans do not eat canine meat any longer. However, the surveys additionally indicated one in each three South Koreans nonetheless oppose the ban although they do not eat canine meat.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly handed the invoice by a 208-0 vote. President Yoon Suk-yeol’s authorities helps the ban, so the next steps to make it regulation are thought-about a formality.
“This law is aimed at contributing to realizing the values of animal rights, which pursue respect for life and a harmonious co-existence between humans and animals,” the laws reads.
The invoice would make the slaughtering, breeding, commerce and sale of canine meat for human consumption unlawful from 2027 and punish such acts with 2-3 years in jail. But it would not stipulate penalties for consuming canine meat.
The invoice would help farmers and others within the trade in shutting down their companies or shifting to alternate options. Details of outlawing the trade can be labored out amongst authorities officers, farmers, specialists and animal rights activists, based on the invoice.
Humane Society International known as the laws’s passage “history in the making.”
“I never thought I would see in my lifetime a ban on the cruel dog meat industry in South Korea, but this historic win for animals is a testament to the passion and determination of our animal protection movement,” stated JungAh Chae, government director of HSI’s Korea workplace.
The laws left farmers extraordinarily upset and pissed off.
“This is a clear state violence as they’re infringing upon freedom of occupational option. We can’t just sit idly,” stated Son Won-hak, a farmer and chief of a farmers’ affiliation.
Son stated canine farmers will petition the constitutional court docket and launch rallies in protest. He stated farmers will meet on Wednesday to debate different future steps.
There is not any dependable official information on the precise measurement of South Korea’s canine meat trade. Activists and farmers say lots of of hundreds of canine are slaughtered for meat annually in South Korea.
The anti-dog meat marketing campaign obtained an enormous enhance from the nation’s first girl, Kim Keon-hee, who has repeatedly expressed her help for a prohibition. She has turn out to be the topic of withering criticism and crude insults throughout demonstrations by farmers.
The laws would not clearly specify how canine farmers and others within the trade can be supported after the ban, which is able to seemingly lead to continued animosities, observers say.
“Dogs are different from cows, chickens and pigs,” stated Kim Myung-ae, a 58-year-old Seoul resident. “Why would you still eat dogs when they are now seen more as family-like pets than food?”
Another Seoul resident, Jeong Yoon-hee, disagreed, saying whether or not to eat canine meat is a matter of private alternative and dietary tradition. “Dogs are dogs, not humans,” he stated.
Source: www.dailysabah.com