By Michael Hwang
As a fellow Canadian I am ashamed and disappointed to hear such comments made by Ms. Lois Isfjord on The Korea Times regarding dog and cat meat. For a citizen of a country where multiculturalism is its very foundation, it is ironic how this person chose not to try to understand and appreciate the Korean culture and instead chose to attack it. Sadly, Ms. Isfjord has abused her freedom of speech granted by the Canadian constitutional Charter of Rights and Freedom.
First of all, I do not understand why dog or cat meat should be viewed any differently from beef or pork. Cows, chickens, pigs and even fish such as salmon are farmed for mass production and are bred differently for maximum meat content. Dogs and cats are likewise farmed and bred differently for human consumption. Don't Canadians consume unusual animals as well such as sheep? Let's not even get into the even more unusual French-Canadian diet in Quebec. Ms. Isfjord does not understand that in the end, regardless which animal it comes from, it is just meat that people eat.
This ``slaughter of dogs and cats'' Ms. Isfjord refers to not only applies to dogs and cats, but all animals humans consume the meat of! Virtually all animals that are farmed experience a form of abuse, be it tagging of cow ears or cell confinement, and in the end become killed for meat harvest. It would be contradictory to say that for example dogs and cats should be treated differently because they are domestic animals, as clearly this person thinks that all animals should be treated with love and loves all animals so much that a letter to the editor was written to display this certain passion.
My recent personal experience in Seoul tells me a very remote number of Korean restaurants serve dog and cat meat anyhow, if not never served. With this in mind, I do not understand how this dog and cat meat problem has become a pandemic controversy in the first place. Dog and cat meat consumption is an obsolete practice in Korea and I would be very surprised if people of this generation even consume dog and cat meat on a frequent basis. Lois Isfjord's claim that consumption of dog and cat meat gives North Americans a ``barbaric and backward" impression of the Koreans sound like a typical and ignorant North American stereotype.
I cannot believe how poorly the Koreans are portrayed in Ms. Isfjord's article. The Korean children are not monsters that eat living puppies and kittens. They already know how to love pets and are also mature enough to comprehend the fact that unfortunately some dogs and cats are farmed for human consumption just like cows and pigs. I would be shocked if any children these days consume dog or cat meat regularly for the reasons highlighted above. It is also ludicrous to see how Ms. Isfjord has linked a non-existent animal abuse problem by children to future crimes. If this were true then all meat farmers in the world would become criminals in the future for imprisoning the animals in tiny cells, and slaughtering them. Ridiculous.
Finally, how is the face of the Korean government and economy involved in this problem? How is it that local dog and cat meat trades affect exports of other Korean goods in a worldwide scale? Just like how Canada's domestic underground market for marijuana does not affect Canada's international export of lumber and energy products, local dog and cat meat trades have no visible affect on Korea's international trades. To this day, Korea is respected as one of the world leaders in manufacturing and exporting of wide-screen televisions, cellular phones, automobiles and other electronic goods. Local dog and cat meat consumption certainly has not led to a ``[boycott] of Korean products" seeing how the number of exports have skyrocketed within the last few years.
The Korean government has been able to accommodate trades by entering into free trade agreements with foreign countries and the current President has been making efforts to forge stronger relationships with other countries indicated by his recent visits to other countries. These reasons alone warrant respect and the Koreans should and do respect the government in these aspects. It is unfortunate that Koreans' general faith in their government is being tested by the American beef import problem, but this is an unrelated problem. Therefore there does not seem to be a problem in this aspect.
Clearly this person has no idea what she is talking about. Ms. Isfjord takes an almost non-existent problem regarding dog and cat consumption in Korea and fills the column with a series of hateful, absurd and comical arguments. This person should open her eyes and stop making ridiculous attacks on the Korean people and the government using a stereotypical North American viewpoint. I hope this person becomes educated and learns to appreciate other cultures and its practices in the future. Ms. Isfjord should join PETA and become a vegetarian if she cannot stand the inevitable maltreatment of farm animals.
The writer is a Korean-Canadian attending the University of Western Ontario. He can be reached at hwang.michael@hotmail.com.