The following is from a Kinship Circle campaign currently underway. They hope to disrupt Korea's Free Trade Agreement on the basis of the nation's terrible animal welfare record and failure to enforce legislated laws.

A sample letter is further below.

South Korea's cat/dog consumption industry won't end for ethical reasons.
But a blow to South Korean financial interests may finally make them take
notice. Urge the Obama Admin and U.S. Congress to not approve a United
States - South Korean Free Trade Agreement. Send comments now.

SENDING OPTIONS:
1) SEND AN AUTOMATED LETTER:
http://www.kinshipcircle.org/letter_library/letter_new2.asp?LetterID=1889&seriesfirst=true

2) OR -- COPY/PASTE EMAILS & SAMPLE LETTER BELOW.

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EMAIL BLOCK & WEB CONTACT FORMS
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1) U.S CITIZENS ONLY -- SEND COMMENTS TO --
YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND 2 SENATORS IN U.S. CONGRESS:
To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
http://www.Congress.org
http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov

2) EVERYONE -- SEND COMMENTS TO --
U.S. WAYS AND MEANS TRADE SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS,
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA & HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI:

*****ABOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES BELOW*****
Most Congresspersons use constituent-only web contact forms now. However, we
searched documents from various Congressional committees, meetings, and
initiatives to find some personal emails. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT ALL THE
EMAIL ADDRESSES BELOW ARE STILL VALID.

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christopher.vanhollen@mail.house.gov, Jacqueline.Gosnell@mail.house.gov,
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , rep.earl.pomeroy@mail.house.gov,
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , terri.mccullough@mail.house.gov,
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President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-CA: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html

*****IF A CONGRESSPERSON BELOW IS YOUR REP, USE THEIR CONTACT FORM*****
Charles B. Rangel, D-NY, Ways and Means Chairman: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=10470
Sander M. Levin, D-MI, Trade Subcommittee Chairman: http://www.house.gov/levin/levin_contact.shtml
John S. Tanner, D-TN, Trade Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/tanner/contact.htm
Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, Trade Subcommittee: http://vanhollen.house.gov/Contact/
Jim McDermott, D-WA, Trade Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/contact.shtml
Richard E. Neal, D-MA, Trade Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/neal/write_neal.html
Lloyd Doggett, D-TX, Trade Subcommittee: http://doggett.house.gov/
Earl Pomeroy, D-ND, Trade Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/formpomeroy/zipauth.htm
Bob Etheridge, D-NC, Trade Subcommittee: http://etheridge.house.gov/Contact/
Linda T. Sanchez, D-CA, Trade Subcommittee: http://lindasanchez.house.gov/index.cfm?section=contact
Kevin Brady, R-TX, Trade Subcommittee: http://www.house.gov/brady/contact_page.html
Geoff Davis, R-KY, Trade Subcommittee: http://geoffdavis.house.gov/Contact/
Dave G. Reichert, R-WA, Trade Subcommittee: http://reichert.house.gov/Contact/ZipAuth.htm
Wally Herger, R-CA, Trade Subcommittee: https://forms.house.gov/herger/webforms/landing.html
Devin Nunes, R-CA, Trade Subcommitte: https://nunes.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.ContactForm

***KINSHIP CIRCLE CANNOT GUARANTEE ALL EMAILS WILL WORK***
During campaigns, recipients may change or disable their email addresses.
Emails from government, corporate, or institute websites may be incorrect.

***Kinship Circle believes an animal-free diet is the ultimate way to end
cruelty and the devastating impacts of animal agriculture. We feel
confinement, deprivation, drugging, brutalization, slaughter, dismemberment
and consumption are bad for dogs, cats, pigs, cows, chickens, goats and all
who live. We advocate for an end to the suffering of all.

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SAMPLE LETTER
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RE: Please do not approve the U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA)

Dear President Obama and Members of the U.S. Congress:

I respectfully ask the Obama Administration to NOT ratify the U.S.-South
Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Labor unions and automakers oppose the
accord as written, as do many Democrats who want South Korea to eliminate
blockades to U.S. auto exports.

Furthermore, South Korea selectively complies with its own laws and misleads
the global community. Government corruption is particularly evident in its
application of animal welfare policy. For example, South Korea is the only
nation to openly slaughter cats and dogs for human ingestion. It fails to
uphold its own Food Sanitation Law of 1984, which bans dog broths
(Boshintang) as "disgusting foods." Some two million dogs are butchered for
their meat every year.

Amendments to Korea's Animal Protection Act of 1991 stiffen penalties for
animal abuse, but ignore dog meat markets -- the chief source of cruelty. The
law calls extraction of bodily fluids from a living animal unlawful cruelty,
yet doesn't ban the "liquefaction" of cats in pressure cookers to make
elixirs presumed to heal arthritis, neuralgia, and other human conditions.

How can a country unable to enforce its own laws abide by the terms of any
Free Trade Agreement?

Gentle animals, historically bred as loyal companions to people, are
systematically tortured to "tenderize" their tissue and expel the adrenaline
believed to act as a sexual aphrodisiac when eaten. Their bones are slowly
broken with pipes and hammers. They suffer bloodletting, live dismemberment,
hangings, boiling and more brutalities.

Documentation of wet markets reveals dogs (some still with ID collars)
squashed inside fly-infested crates in the hot sun. For decades, South Korea
has flouted international censure of this trade. They have manipulated every
effort to end the agony of stolen or factory-farmed dogs and cats.

While animal protection may seem to be a marginal issue at first glance, I
ask you to consider that in America, roughly 77.5 million dogs and 93.6
million cats live as companions with people (American Pet Products
Manufacturers Association 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey).

U.S. voters, your constituents, oppose favored status for a nation that not
only consumes cats and dogs -- but deliberately torments them as well.
Please do not confirm the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Thank you,

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COMPLETE CONTACT INFORMATION
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Get all names/titles, mail addresses, phone/fax and emails:
http://www.kinshipcircle.org/letter_library/letter_new2.asp?LetterID=1889&seriesfirst=true

Dogs on the way to their doom (Photo by Reuters)

Who would have thought China would be so progressive as to implement an animal rights law that bans dog and cat eating? But that's what is going to happening, with any luck.

This is great news for us in Korea because it immediately casts the Korean government in a bad light. The Korean government has been backward and stagnant in dealing with animal abuse, and now its ineptitude becomes even more dramatically illustrated with the Chinese comparison.

Chinese legal experts will submit proposals in April to the National People’s Congress for the banning of the eating of dogs and cats. This will become China’s first law against animal abuse: anyone caught eating cat or dog meat could be fined as much as 5,000 yuan (£450) with up to 15 days in jail. Organisations involved in the sale of either meat could be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan.

If the new regulation is passed, it will mean thousands of dog restaurants and butchers will have to shut down. Or, in the worst scenario, they may be driven underground. However, a special hotline will be implemented whereby the police can be alerted to any violations.

Dr Chang Jiwen, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which is a government think tank, has been working on the legislation for 11 years and put forward a 181-clause final draft last September. He is preparing a shortened version of the law, focusing specifically on animal torture.

Dog meat has been eaten in China for thousands of years. As in Korea, medicinal properties are traditionally attributed to the meat and it is supposed to boost energy and male virility. That last selling point--a claim made of numerous traditional medicines to boost sales--is the reason many customers of dog meat are men in their 40s and 50s. How pathetic. In China's cold North, dog stew is also popular as a way of warming the blood.

But as China has become more affluent, its middle class has been getting to know animals as pets and is against the butchering of dogs and cats. Online petitions have sprung up. Wide spread condemnation has followed government-sponsored culls of dogs to get rid of rabies in some cities. In addition, protests are regularly held by animal rights groups at markets where dog meat is sold.

It is unclear when the law will be passed. It may take years. One leader, Xin Chunying, the deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the NPC has publicly expressed doubts that new animal rights laws are needed.

Chief of wild animal protection in Jiangsu province, Xu Huiqiang, was quoted as saying to Yangtze Evening News that "Banning such custom by law is inappropriate and unable to work." Indeed, the provinces, where dog meat remains popular as a traditional and famous dish, say they will defy the law.

So, despite the good news, not much is likely to change any time soon. Meanwhile, there are thousands of dog farms all over China where dogs are no doubt languishing in utterly horrific conditions. Often the dogs are stabbed to death if not beaten to death.

Let's hope the disgusting industry is slowly brought to an end, so that Korea and its backward government can be dragged into following the example.

Source: LA Times

(Won-Bok Lee. Photo by John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

The LA Time has reported on Lee Won-bok, an animal rights activist in Seoul who displays posters showing the suffering that dogs have to endure as a part of the dog meat industry. He also provides a petition for people to sign.

Each weekend, the 45-year-old animal rights activist stages a graphic photo display of dogs kept in cages, hanged and butchered, their meat prepared for market. He knows the images are hard to look at. But that's precisely his point, to show the harsh treatment of an animal that many South Koreans now view as companions, not cuisine.

For years, foreign advocates have railed against the practice of butchering dogs and cats. Although Koreans have eaten dogs for centuries, the habit became more prevalent during the privations that followed the Korean War. It eventually spread from the poor and elderly to be adopted by the more affluent as niche cuisine.

Most protests were dismissed as the unwanted opinions of outsiders. But as the country has acquired more trappings of Western culture, the number of pet owners has exploded, and South Koreans are taking the lead in promoting animal rights here.

In recent years, at least nine domestic groups against eating dog have been founded to stage street and online campaigns nationwide.

"People don't comprehend the suffering these dogs endure," Lee said. "They may vaguely realize that people still eat dogs. But they need to know what happens to the animals."

Lee, founder of the Korea Assn. of Animal Protection, gets in people's faces. He has barged into City Hall to confront an official who favored consuming dog meat and brazenly displayed his photos at a local dog market as a vendor tried to choke him.

He represents a new breed of animal rights activist: a South Korean who aggressively questions the traditions of his own culture.

"Pets are now objects of emotional interaction, just as in Western society," said Joo Eun-woo, a sociology professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. "Some people sleep with their dogs. For them, seeing these animals as food is taboo."

In 2005, one in four South Koreans was a dog or cat owner. In addition, the number of pet shops and animal-themed television shows have risen in the nation of 48 million people.

South Koreans wield more influence than foreign activists, said Lee, who has been a vegetarian for 20 years. "People can no longer say, 'Outsiders can't tell us what to eat.' Now Koreans are telling Koreans."

On some weekend days, he is able to collect more than 1,000 signatures. He says he has amassed 300,000 over nine years.

"We are a new generation of Koreans, and it's up to us to stop this practice," said Won Ji-yeon, 17, who stood in line to sign Lee's list.

National laws prohibit eating dog meat, but the government rarely enforces them. Dog markets are rarely, if ever, inspected for health and sanitary conditions.

Six years ago, a local court rebuffed a lawsuit that Lee filed seeking to suspend sales of dog meat soup, called boshintang, ruling that eating soup made from dog was too prevalent a custom to prohibit. But Lee and others successfully lobbied the government to outlaw the butchering of pet dogs that stray from their masters.

Canine cuisine enthusiasts say they distinguish between dogs they eat and those kept as pets. They say they reserve a special breed of dog for consumption, never mixing the two.

Activists say the lines often blur. Many domesticated breeds, including collies and spaniels, are also consumed after being scooped up as runaways. Lee rescues stray dogs as a way to keep them out of the hands of dog meat vendors.

On the three days each year when many South Koreans traditionally eat boshintang, activists stage street protests, portraying dogs kept in cages and hanged for their meat -- anything, they say, to diminish the outmoded appetite for dog meat.

Of course, KARA also had a street rally at the height of summer to draw attention to the horrors of the dog meat industry. But the older generation especially refuse to give up the abhorrent practice of eating dogs.

As the LA Times continues, some typical comments appear, the usual, together with some surprisingly unfortunate statements from, of all people, Cham Lee, the director of the Korean Tourism Organization. Mr. Lee's ignorance is similar to that of a typical Westerner who says meat is meat no matter where it comes from (but then, Lee is a Westerner).

Last month, on the year's final boshintang day, the regulars packed into Mr. Moon's Dog Meat Stew Restaurant, where the year-round menu includes not only boshintang, but also dog soup and dog served with vegetables and hot pepper sauce, along with non-dog dishes.

Hong Sung-woo said dog stew is healthy.

"It gives me stamina," said the former government worker, now 84. "How do you think I've lived this long?"

The cuisine also remains popular among some government officials, including Cham Lee, the German-born director of the Korean Tourism Organization, who also raises Korean Jindo dogs as pets. He elicited criticism when he held a private wine and dog-tasting seminar. His verdict: Dog goes best with a light Shiraz, or a nice Riesling.

Parisians can eat horse meat because France is considered high culture, he said. But South Korea gets no such pass.

"Westerners eat one type of animal and tell the world they can't eat another," he said. "I say, if you eat animals, you eat animals."

Yes, you might say that but it does not mean it is right or even an intelligent thing to say. This lame argument Cham Lee puts forward is typical of people who have failed to think things through. It is shallow indeed to dismissively focus only on the eating of meat, as if that is all there is to it, when the issue of human beings torturing other animals and forcing them live appalling and deprived lives is ignored.

Would Cham Lee call the torturing of other animals civilized or moral behavior? Is he qualified to know? His attempts at projecting a cultured persona are a flop. You can't mix even the best of wines with torture and suffering and come off looking good, sorry Cham.

Lee, the activist, pledges to continue his campaign until the practice of eating dog ends.

He uses the signatures he collects to make the case to legislators that the public is on his side.

"Dog eating in Korea is not going to end in one day or one year," he said. "But it's only a matter of time."

Source: http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/view/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0001183685

Regretably, according to the news source above, some dogs that are being adopted out of shelters are disappearing and more than likely ending up as dog meat.

Here is a loose translation of parts of the news item.

Every summer, the stench of burning fur can be smelt at Moran Market. Dog meat restaurants serve people who proclaim that eating dog meat is a Korean cultural tradition, that nobody has the right to stop people eating whatever they want and that dogs raised as pets and as food are different.

In June of 2009, a phone call was received by Korean Animal Welfare Association. A person was moving and could not take all their dogs. This person had been involved in adopting stray dogs from the Animal Freedom Association. A promise was made to re-adopt them to a new family.

Then, a phone call came in from the same person saying the dog was sent to the country. Unfortunately, what “sending the dog to the country” means is bad news. It does not mean a place where dogs are free to romp around in the green grassy lawn with fresh air and peaceful surroundings. Sending a dog to the country means to send the dog to a slaughter house to be processed into dog meat or dog tonic.

Since the summer dog meat season was approaching, there was no time to lose. But asking about the whereabouts of the dog was futile and it would be difficult to find the dog. The dog owner’s attitude had changed. He said to let bygones be bygones and not to get involved any further.

One of the reasons for such an cold and callous reply could be that the dog had already been eaten. The person had sent the big dogs to the country to be killed for dog meat. He brought the smaller dogs back to the Korean Animal Welfare Association. That was how the fate of the dogs was revealed.

Gurumi was adopted, then made into dog tonic.

The companion of the dog owner took all the big dogs to his father when the dog owner was away and the father quickly took the dogs to Busan’s Gupo Market and were made into dog tonic for the father to drink.

The above story goes to show that to a dog meat eater, there is no difference between a dog raised for dog meat and a pet dog. The horrible reality is that any dogs who are adopted are in danger of ending up as dog meat.

Dogs are usually docile unless their lives are threatened. To control dogs the most hideous and inhumane acts of violence are undertaken by the dog meat industry. Thus, it goes without saying that the dog meat industry is one of the most vile and violent of animal abusers.

During the transport process, a dog is beaten into submission by pipe sticks, ropes, and whatever weapon there is.

Before transporting, dogs are crumpled into a heap on top of each other.

There are too many stray dogs. About 80-90% of dogs sold at pet shops or vets end up in shelters.

In 2008, the animal welfare law stipulated that dogs were companion animals. But still, they are eaten as dog meat. Cultural tradition can be acknowledged, but that does not mean that all culture is right, especially if it involves torture and abuse.

That is why the so-called culture of dog eating and the dog meat industry is being challenged by a number of Korean citizens. It is a fight between the dog meat eaters and the protesters of abuse. The fight against cruelty and suffering leads Korean citizens to try to make positive changes, not only because the eyes of the Western world is upon Korea.