ENTRY DESCRIPTION
A demonstration against dog meat was held in Seoul under the slogan of ‘Stop it! Stop eat!’ in July, 2017. The demonstration was held at the plaza in front of City Hall, informing that eating dog meat is a national problem. Even politicians participated and suggested that this must be solved from political aspects. Even many foreigners participated and showed their international interests.
Koreans have eaten dog meat since long ago. Even now, over 3 million dogs are being slaughtered in a year. However, dogs are acknowledged as companion animal worldwide. Dog meat soup of Korea is being criticized internationally. The population raising their companion animals including dog are almost 10 million. And the unsanitary dog breeding and brutal slaughtering process has always been a problem. At this present time that there are a lot of nutritious food unlike in the past, some poses this question, “Why can’t we give up eating dog meat despite international criticism?”
Some might ask, “If so, should we ban eating dog by law?” However, this is not that simple.
In Korea, almost one million people are running a dog breeding farm or operating a dog meat soup restaurant. If dog meat is banned, their rights for living are threatened. Rather, foreign criticism causes opposite effect because it is perceived as interference in a unique food culture. There are also counterviews, ranging from the simple logic of why we can’t eat dog while eating pork, beef, and chicken, stressing that domestic dog is different from companion animal even to the in-depth one that approaches dog meat from cultural-anthropologic perspective.
Dog is not a simple companion animal in Korea. Dog is a difficult problem with long tradition, politics, economy, and social issues of Korea intricately connected.

AUTHOR
I am a Korean photographer and photo critic. I majored in fine art and photography in Hongik University, Korea and got a doctor’s degree in Art Plastic. I am the first doctor in photography in Korea and now teaching students in universities while working as photographer and photo critic. Furthermore, I have published many books and photo albums, for example 'Photo – Theory and Practice', 'A Guide to Photo Viewing', and 'Seoul by Night'.

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