It is nothing short of ghoulishly disheartening that a country which advances itself as civilized in this, the 21st Century, is culturally comfortable with a flourishing market for dog meat. It boggles the mind that any humane culture could conceivably feel at ease with raising all manner of dog breeds for the express purpose of slaughter for the human table.

According to Humane Society International there exist an estimated 17,000 "dog meat farms" across South Korea. The nation that is now the centre of attention for hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics that has extended yet again the hand of conciliation toward North Korea, eliciting admiration far and wide, and even in its warming outcome with its sister-nation seeing a fallout of instantly faltering memories of North Korea's totalitarian brutal regime, is no less brutal itself in its devotion to raising dogs for human consumption.



In some of these "dog farms", dogs are kept individually in small cages reminiscent of caged poultry on farms elsewhere in the world.  The dogs are raised in those cages and slaughtered, their butchered remains sold in markets and to dog meat restaurants. In the city hosting the Olympic venues for skating and hockey there are a dozen dog meat restaurants. The stews and soups produced are held in great esteem, believed to be beneficial for healing the body and for their purported virility-enhancing qualities.

An estimated two and a half million dogs are killed each and every year in South Korea, to be eaten by enthusiastic culinary aficionados. The charity Humane Society International has an intense presence in South Korea, hoping to be able in time to eventually close all of these "dog farms" whose residents are dogs of all breeds, anxious for a humane touch, curious about people who may pass by. On the other hand there are those dogs which have been so brutally beaten then shrink back in fear at the sight of a human.

The owner of these dogs says his operation started with just one animal, but then grew too big over the 10 years it’s been in operation. Reid Fiest / Global News

The charity approaches dog farmers offering start-up grants if they agree to close their dog-slaughter business and begin anew, focusing on another industry other than the one in which large-breed dogs, valued for their size and the concomitant amount of flesh to be had with their slaughter,  cannot even stand erect in the cramped cages they are forced to live in. There are golden retrievers, white Grand Pyrenees, Jindo mixes, Korean Dosa Mastiffs -- and small breed dogs cowering in fear at the back of their cages.

"We can't stop this industry one dog meat farm at a time", stated the executive director of HSI, given the enormity of the presence of 'farms' and the clamour by the public for dog meat. Those they are able to close, however, shine "a global spotlight on the dog meat trade" and the charity's work offering the government of Korea "an economic model ... to follow when it makes the decision to end the dog meat trade".

Alice is shown locked in a cage at a dog meat farm in Namyangju, South Korea in fall 2017.
Jean Chung / Humane Society International