Petition: https://chng.it/PYpFz6fs

The Prime Minister of Hungary, Honorable Viktor Orbán: Please tell your Partnership Country, South Korea, you oppose the torture and consumption of dogs and cats.

Click HERE for more actions you can take: https://koreandogs.org/partnership-korea-hungary/

Hungary and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation to promote trade and investment in Budapest on April 18, 2023, according to a state news wire MTI report. 

This relationship was undoubtedly formed in the spirit of partnership and for your mutual benefit, business links, trade, etc. And while Hungary would have expected to learn about the differences in cultural practices of the South Korean citizens, we feel confident that your country would have hesitated to form such a Partnership Country relationship had your country known about the aberrant and cruel practices routinely carried out in the dog and cat meat trades all over South Korea. Lucrative but illegal trades carry on unchallenged: with no enforcement of the laws and no punishment for those violating them.

South Korea is the home to global companies, such as Hyundai, Kia, Samsung, LG, Daewoo, SK, and POSCO, which is why it is so shocking that an estimated 2.5 million dogs are tortured and slaughtered every year within South Korea, because of the greed of dog eaters and the dog meat industry; while the majority of those Koreans, who don’t participate in this offensive trade, show a profound indifference by doing nothing at all to stop it.

We know how loyal and faithful our dogs across the world are. We all ask a lot of them - they serve us in innumerable ways: farm work, war work, police and guard duties, search and rescue, help for disabled people, guidance and guardianship, and, of course, as our loving and trusting companions.

Dogs were first domesticated thousands of years ago, and so much do they want to be part of our ‘human’ family that they have learned to understand our gestures and language - the language of another species- showing remarkable willingness and intelligence.

In South Korea, there are numerous dog farms, slaughterhouses, markets, and restaurants where the dogs, who have been tortured their entire lives, end up being slaughtered in the most inhumane ways, such as by electrocution, hanging, or beating, and then thrown into boiling water – sometimes while they are still alive. In many places, dogs are being killed in full view of other terrified, caged dogs; this occurs in public and in broad daylight. In addition, many abandoned and stolen former pets end up in this industry and are subject to the same cruelty.

Please watch this undercover video by animal rights activists in South Korea: Shocking Cruelty of South Korea’s Dog Meat Industry, Part 1 of 2: https://youtu.be/_ZVQjgGb4RQ

Part 2 of 2: https://vimeo.com/754160791

Forest fire in Uljin burns dogs imprisoned in dog meat farms: https://youtu.be/mh1lEGt2gjU

https://youtu.be/GLLeI_XFNPg

Imprisoning dogs in raised wire cages in South Korea’s dog meat farms is extreme cruelty: https://youtu.be/D9Hw4u1XKo4

There are laws in South Korea against selling dogs and cats for human consumption, yet these laws are routinely and blatantly ignored.

We believe that there must surely be some social responsibility for the representatives of one country to take a stand against any wrongdoing being sanctioned or ignored by their Partnership Country. As such, we ask you to please urge South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to take action and to state that Hungary and its citizens demand that South Korea issue an official document mandating that the following existing Korean laws be enforced by its government officials, police, and judges:

Breeding:

Unauthorized processing of food waste fed to dogs in the meat trade violates the Wastes Control Act, Article 15-2, Article 25, Section 3. Suppliers of food waste and transporters of food waste to dog meat farms are violating this regulation. (Penalty: imprisonment with labor for not more than five years or by a fine not exceeding 50 million won per Article 64 of the Waste Control Act. Imprisonment with labor for not more than three years or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won per Article 65 of the Waste Management Act.)

The unauthorized collection of food waste and feeding it to dogs violates the Control of Livestock and Fish Feed Act, Article 14, Sections 1 & 2. (Penalty: imprisonment with labor for not more than three years or a fine not exceeding 30 million won per Article 33 of the Control of Livestock and Fish Feed Act.)

Excrement and resulting environmental damage produced as a by-product of the illegal dog meat farm violate the Act on the Management and Use of Livestock Excreta. The excrement produced at dog meat farms causes environmental damage to the immediate and surrounding area. (Penalty: imprisonment with labor for not more than two years or a fine not exceeding 20 million won per Article 49 of the Act on the Management and Use of Livestock Excreta.)

Slaughter:

Slaughtering dogs for human consumption violates the Animal Protection Act Article 10, Section 1, Clause 1-4. Killing an animal by hanging it by the neck or by using any other cruel methods; killing an animal on the street or any other places open to the public or killing an animal with animals of the same kind present at the scene; despite the absence of unavoidable reasons such as the animal's habits and ecological environment using the animal as food for other animals; killing an animal without any justifiable grounds such as prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, such as prevention of direct threats to human life or body or property damage is a clear violation of the Animal Protection Act.

The slaughter of dogs by electrocution violates the Animal Protection Act, Article 10, Section 2, Clause 1. Inflicting an injury to animals by physical or chemical means, such as tools or drugs, is subject to legal punishment. Therefore, the routine slaughter of dogs by butchers and farmers by these methods violates the Act.  (Penalty: imprisonment with labor for not more than three years or a fine not exceeding 30 million won per Article 97 of the Animal Protection Act.) Further, electrocution as a method of slaughter is internationally recognized as an inherently cruel method of slaughter and banned globally. In Korea, the Supreme Court in 2020 convicted a case of slaughtering a dog using an electric iron skewer.

The slaughter of dogs from an unauthorized slaughterhouse violates the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, Article 7 Section 1. The Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act states that dogs are officially recognized and classified as “animals” that are “prohibited from being slaughtered and distributed as food for human consumption.” Therefore, those vendors operating dog slaughterhouses are operating outside of the parameters of the law. (Penalty: imprisonment with labor for not more than 10 years or a fine not exceeding 100 million won per Article 45 of the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act.)

The slaughter of dogs for consumption violates the Animal Protection Act, Article 10. The Act intends to ensure that no animal is slaughtered in a cruel or revolting manner and shall be free from unnecessary pain, fear, or stress during slaughter. Therefore, the only humane way of killing dogs would be by euthanasia (lethal injection). All currently practiced methods of slaughter by butchers, farmers, and traders exclude euthanasia as a method of slaughter. Therefore, they are all in breach of this Act. This also violates the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act Article 7 Section 1 Clause 2. According to the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, the slaughter of animals for their consumption is allowed only for the livestock animals publicly announced as livestock classification in the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, and dogs are not classified here.

Distribution & Sale:

The display and sale of dog carcasses in traditional outdoor markets violate the Food Sanitation Act, Article 4, 5. It violates laws banning the sale of harmful food due to the contamination from the unsanitary and illegal animal slaughter and display of the dog carcass. For example, dog carcasses are routinely contaminated by microorganisms that cause human diseases and food poisoning, leading to severe and life-threatening health complications. There are also strict laws that ban the sale of meat from sick animals. Because there is no quality control or proper monitoring of slaughter practices in the dog meat trade, likely, these laws are routinely violated.

Dog meat restaurants’ sale of dog meat soup made with dog carcasses from an unknown source violates the Food Sanitation Act Article 44 Section 1 Clause 1. Uninspected livestock products must not be transported, stored, displayed, sold, or used to manufacture or process food for human consumption.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety must crack down on and punish businesses that sell dog carcasses and that process, cook, and sell products that use dog carcasses as raw materials.

Please refer to the legal information regarding dog meat consumption in South Korea published by KARA (Korea Animal Rights Advocates): 

http://koreandogs.org/kara-publishes-legal-information-booklet-ending-dog-meat-consumption/

Dog meat consumption is a catastrophe brought about by the government's inaction. Here are reasons why dog meat consumption is illegal.

Breeding: https://www.ekara.org/activity/against/read/16556

Slaughter: https://ekara.org/activity/against/read/19677

Distribution & Sales: https://ekara.org/activity/against/read/19754

International coverage of the brutal dog and cat meat trade in South Korea has stained South Korea’s image. Don’t let it also tarnish your country’s Partnership country relationship. The time to end this tragedy is now. The favor of your reply is requested.