Dog Meat to Face Sanitation Inspection
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Seoul government plans to inspect the sanitation of dog meat served at restaurants from this month.
In the inspection, the city will take samples of dog meat from about 530 restaurants and examine if they contain harmful substances such as heavy metals, antibiotics and bacteria.
Under the current law, it is illegal to butcher dogs and trade their meat as they are not categorized as livestock but the government has been unable to regulate the sale of dog meat as it is a part of long-rooted private Korean dining culture.
But the ambiguous situation has raised concerns over the sanitation of dog meat as dogs are categorized in the same group as donkeys, rabbits, horses and deer, which does not let the authorities apply regulations for livestock to the trade of dog meat.
``The inspection has nothing to do with the issue to legalize the sale of dog meat,'' a city official said. ``It is just to examine the safety of dog meat at restaurants as many Koreans enjoy dishes of dog meat.''
The city will conduct a regular sanitation inspection on dog meat and make public a list of restaurants that serve insalubrious dog meat dishes and suspend their operation, he said.
The city also plans to propose that the central government categorize dogs as livestock.
But when the plan was first announced last month, it drew criticism from dog lovers and animal rights organizations both at home and abroad. They cited dogs are major human-friendly animals.
Due to such strong opposition, previous attempts to attempts to categorize dogs as livestock have failed.
In 2001, 20 lawmakers proposed a bill to revise the Law on Stock Product Process, aimed at setting up proper regulations on dog meat.
But the bill was scrapped without being properly dealt with due to criticism from animal rights groups and dog lovers.