AR-News: URGENT - "Challenge Korean Government's Lies"

[סמדר]

From: iakakaps 
To: KAPS & IAKA 
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 12:23 AM
Subject: URGENT - "Challenge Korean Government's Lies"


**URGENT ACTION NEEDED**

Challenge Korean Government's Lies

Stop New Draft Amendment: Secretly Permits Dog & Cat Meat Trade



Dear friends of Korean animals,

 

The Korean Government, Embassies, and Consulates are sending out a reply denying their true intentions - secretly permitting the dog and cat meat trade - while pretending to improve the welfare of Korean animals. They claim that they are focusing on strengthening the protection of animals by numerous measures. The 1991 Animal Protection Law already bans cruelty to all animals and yet the Korean Government has simply failed to enforce the law.  The new Amendment does strengthen penalties against offenders and introduces some regulations for the pet industry, but adds nothing to strengthen laws to stop the illegal dog and cat meat trade – killing millions of dogs and cats each year.

 

Worse, the definition of pet animals in the proposed Amendment is a clever way of giving legitimacy to the dog and cat meat trade. If the law only recognizes a dog or a cat as a pet animal when their owner’s intention is to raise them for companionship, a dog or a cat can also be treated as food or medicine according to their owner’s intention. This is especially a big problem when the Korean Government secretly eliminated dog stew from its list of disgusting food in the Food Sanitation Law of 1984 that could not be sold legally. In a country where millions of dogs and cats are slaughtered for food and some lawmakers and law enforcers participate in the consumption of these animals, the danger that such a definition poses cannot be ignored. This is why KAPS and IAKA have been campaigning against such a definition and this is why the Korean Government has refused to accept our request that the definition of pet animals should include all dogs and cats. 

 

What the Korean Government should concede and openly acknowledge is that the dog and cat meat trade thrives on lies and greed. They should make genuine attempts to expel the trade. The last thing we need is for the Government to pass an Amendment, which is supposed to give better protection to Korean animals, but will, in effect, worsen the very cause of animal abuse in Korea. 

 

Until the millions of dogs and cats in the markets are included in the definition of pet animals, making no distinction between them, this Amendment causes far more harm than good for Korean animals. It is imperative that we generate as much opposition as possible in the next few Weeks. We cannot allow this terrible façade to succeed. If the Amendment passes as it is, it will make our dream of ending this atrocity much harder to achieve. We realize the practice will not cease overnight but we can accomplish our goal of saving the dogs and cats if the Korean Government receives persistent and unyielding pressure from all sides, as they did with Korea’s wild life. 

 

Please write your Member of Parliament or Congress asking them to contact the Korean Government to pressure them to change the definition of “pet animals” to include all dogs and cats.  Below is a sample letter to send to your Member of Parliament or Congress.

 

You may also download or copy this letter and more at http://www.koreananimals.org/urgentaction.htm.


 

Thank you,

  

Kyenan Kum

Founder International Aid For Korean Animals



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Below are Sample Letters for you to send to your Member of Parliament or Congress, as well as Korean Embassies, Consulates, and the President and Minister of Agriculture of Korea.

Sample Letters to your Member of Parliament or Congress: 

UK / World Size (A4 - MS Word Doc.)
US Size (8.5 x 11- MS Word Doc.) 

UK Members of Parliament 

http://www.parliament.uk 
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm 

US Members of Congress 
http://www.house.gov 
http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php 



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Dear MP/Representative,

  

We urgently need your help to stop the Korean Government’s new draft amendment from secretly permitting the illegal dog and cat meat trade. The new draft amendment to the 1991 Animal Protection Law introduces a definition of “pet animals” that only includes dogs and cats raised for companionship, instead of defining all dogs and cats as pets.  By default, this amendment recognizes different classes of dogs and cats – legitimizing other uses for them besides pets – specifically for fraudulent health foods and tonics.


The Ministry of Agriculture claims the definition was introduced to restrict animal abuse in the pet industry, but it remarkably excludes millions of dogs and cats illegally slaughtered and consumed for their meat - often by judges and law enforcers.  Already the government secretly eliminated dog stew from its 1984 Food Sanitation Law list of disgusting foods that could not be sold legally.  Given the Government’s history of deceitful diplomacy, we are committed to stopping its latest daring act to legally permit the dog and cat meat trade hidden in the live-animal markets and from the eyes of the international community. Recent remarks shamelessly made by a government official in a consultation meeting confirmed our fears – claiming they would emphasize that dog meat is Korea’s food culture and explain dog meat by making a distinction between food-dogs and pet-dogs to correct misconceptions among foreigners. 


The Korean Government’s strategy to defend dog meat as “our food culture” is a blatant revision of history that damages Korea’s image abroad. Dogs were never a dietary tradition in Korean history; even during desperate times they were only the vice of older men seeking to enhance their sexual potency.  Cats have only been consumed in tonics since the 1980s.  Greed, loss of wild life, and fraudulent health benefits brought them to market. We want the 1991 Animal Protection Law to actually be enforceable; it is suppose to protect dogs and cats from cruelty and slaughter, but needs amendments that better define forms of abuse and illegal killing without deliberately excluding millions of dogs and cats from its protection.


This new amendment sets a precedent that could even threaten Korea’s new wildlife protection law that penalizes consumers of illegally poached wildlife products, which passed only due to persistent and unyielding international pressure. The dangerous trade in wild and exotic animal products worldwide threatens our health and environment – this amendment tells us that many more animals will continue to be killed for fraudulent health foods like dog-stew-viagra and cat-juice-tonic, whose alleged benefits depend on torture, steroids, and narcotics. The Korean Government’s deceitful diplomatic solution questions their level of commitment to responsible and just animal protection laws, as well for decent consumer fraud and health protection.


Despite all our protests, the Korean Government is still determined to adopt their new amendment.  Their schedule permits congressional committee approval as early as May 2004, so they can avoid as much public debate as possible. Before it reaches committee, they must accept our demands that the following amendment clause be changed:

Article 2, Clause 3: “The pet animals” are dogs and cats raised for the purpose of companionship and developing an emotional attachment to humans and other animals; as designated by the Minister of Agriculture.

This amendment clause should instead state the following:

Article 2, Clause 3: “The pet animals” includes all dogs and cats. Other animals can be “the pet animals”, if raised for the purpose of companion ship and developing an emotional attachment to humans; as designated by the Minister of Agriculture.


We believe IAKA/KAPS and caring Koreans will win their campaign, because dog and cat eating is already illegal and not a part of our tradition or culture – most Koreans do not eat them and millions prefer to have them as pets. We can only lose if secrecy, nationalist lies, and corruption prevail. The truth and law is on our side. 


Please help by sending a letter to the Korean President and the Ministry of Agriculture demanding that the definition of “the pet animal” be changed to include all dogs and cats, as currently protected by the 1991 Animal Protection Law. Please tell them the only way to improve their image abroad is by responsibly educating Koreans about the myths of dog and cat meat-products and by promptly enforcing adequate laws protecting all dogs and cats from abuse and slaughter, as well as finding these butchers alternative sources of income. 

 

Kindest regards,

  

Name:

 

Address:

 




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