The South Korean market where you can still buy dog meat, but not for long

According to the local media, the market provided one third of the country’s dog meat. The closure of 2018 and the ban on selling live dogs were the first steps that put the authorities into other parts of Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore.

Even who acknowledges that the industry is mostly declined with old Koreans and customers, but he says it is difficult to switch to goat meat.

Kim When the job is good, we sold a lot of dog meat. Maybe about 100 kilograms a day. Now we sell 10 kilograms a day, even we sell less, Kim says Kim.

“After 2027, if anyone is eating dogs or dogs, they will be fined. Some people can still secretly, but mostly will disappear.”

Regular research shows that eating dog meat is not popular, a survey of Gallup Korea in 2022 sees that only 8 percent of the Koreans fell from 27 percent in 2015, and 64 percent opposed it.

The forbidden was agreed in accordance with a national law adopted in 2024, allowing dog farmers, butchers and restaurant owners to close their operations or change their jobs. This was accompanied by a financial support measure package. At the beginning of 2025, the farmers who closed the shop quickly were compensated by up to 600,000 Won per dog they delivered, and as the deadline for 2027 approached, payments won 225,000 per dog.

He also put government officials on the mission of reorganizing half a million dogs in shelters or by adopting, but both farmers and animal rights activists acknowledge that there is little clarity about what is not saved.

“In terms of animal protection, this is difficult and annoying. We believe that euthanasia is preferred for massacre because the massacre violates animal welfare laws,“ he says.

The worst scenario is that dogs will be abandoned and will be left to proliferate under neglected conditions.

“The government must act quickly to create instructions and budgets to ensure humanitarian treatment during closing,” he says.

A Saturday morning in the Seoul Olympic Park region, 48-year-old Cha Hee-Jung, takes his dog Doddam for a walk.

Eight years have passed since he rescued Dodam, a puppy from a dog farm where he was held in a small cage. His back paw hugged with a bandage – an old injury he had fought with an old dog on the farm – and still a little timid and doesn’t like people walking behind him.

“Very, very dark job, Cha, Char dog meat industry. When he found Doddam, he was working with a voluntary animal rights group trying to find rescue houses for farm dogs by paying to farmers to get animals from scalide conditions.

“But then, this farmer began to buy more dogs over and over again after paying,” he said on the farm where Dodam was located, and finally they had abandoned the rescue attempts there.

However, with the final date of the ban, which is only 18 months away, Cha, wants to see that South Korean authorities provide financial help to those who save farm dogs such as subsidized pet training.

The South Korean government said that until 2027, all dog farms will be “strictly monitoring the market to ensure that it is closed to new businesses. The remaining dogs will be managed by local animal shelters or temporarily remain on farms under government control.

Park Jung-Hoon, chief of animal welfare and environmental policy of the minister, said in a statement earlier this year, “We want support from the country’s dog business owners in order to become an advanced nation on animal welfare.” He said.

However, Korean dog meat association President Ju Young-Bong says that most of the high costs of establishing new agricultural facilities for different animal husbandry make it impossible for most dog farmers for dog farmers.

“Every dog ​​plant should be demolished and a new facility should be built for new species. This requires great investment, Ju says Ju.

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“Most dog farmers are over 60 years of age; I’m over 60 years of age. Even young farmers find extremely difficult [to transition]. Almost no one can take the challenge. “

Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, more than 70 percent of dog farms have already closed and left about 500 runs.

Ju has only 300 dogs from 2000 in his own farm, but he says that many farmers are now faced with aging years of aging without a flow of income and should be extended for at least two years.

“This will prevent people from ending on the streets, or he says.

When it comes to Moran Black Goat Meat Market, it is noticeably quiet around lunch on Saturday. Kim, the president of the association, says there are about 10 shops that still sell dog meat, but most of them are now selling goats as a main trade.

With the shortage of dogs for sale, the price of meat increased and demand is decreasing even more.

“Older people can’t meet it, Kim Kim says that black goat meat is“ almost the same taste ”.

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