Event – What could the EU and China do for Animals?
6 November 2020
Join us on Wednesday 18 November to discuss what the EU and China could do for Animals, and how this could also benefit public health and climate change.
In 2017, China’s Vice-Minister for Agriculture Yu Kangzhen indicated China’s willingness to work on comprehensive legislation on animal welfare.
Now that the European Commission has announced the long-awaited review of its animal welfare standards in the Farm to Fork strategy, it seems to be even more urgent to discuss what the EU and China could do for animals. Especially considering the vast challenges humanity is facing: the climate emergency, the spread of zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance, and their links to the way society deals with animals.
The two hours event, hosted by MEP Niels Fuglsang (S&D, DK), will bring together academics, Chinese and European stakeholders, NGOs, representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament, as well as Member States, and will be the opportunity to launch the Eurogroup for Animals’ new report ‘What could the EU and China for Animals?’.
Find more information on the agenda and registrationhere.
Veganism is gaining momentum around the world. And vegan musicians are leading the trend.
Plant-based, cruelty-free living is becoming popular in industries everywhere; many doctors are promoting the health benefits of vegan food, fashion designers are featuring animal-free materials in their work, and athletes are adopting plant-based diets to boost performance.
The music scene is just as involved. More and more artists are going vegan and many are keen to let their fans know about it.
Why Celebrities Go Vegan
Various factors motivate celebrities to go vegan. Health is a major motivator. A growing body of research is finding links between meat, dairy, and eggs, and disease. Animal products often contain high levels of saturated and trans fats, which can increase blood cholesterol. High cholesterol can increase the risk of peripheral artery disease, stroke, and heart attack.
More than ever, celebrities are doing their part for the planet by updating their diet. Animal agriculture is to blame for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector combined. It also uses vastly more land and water than plant-based farming.
Animal welfare is another leading reason that celebrities go vegan. The meat, dairy, and egg industries are rife with animal welfare violations. More musicians are making the connection between what’s on their plate and the animal it’s sourced from, and boycotting animal products to take a stand against cruelty.
Benefits Of A Vegan Diet
The decision to adopt a vegan diet could bring with it a range of health benefits. Plant-based food, by nature, contains no cholesterol; cholesterol is only found in animal products. Vegan food also contains good amounts of fibre, while animal-based foods have none. Cholesterol-free, fibre-rich diets lower the risk of disease and can extend lifespan. Data collected from 185 observational studies said that individuals who eat the most fibre are 15 to 30 percent less likely to die prematurely. Fibre-rich diets were also connected to a 16 to 24 percent reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes, stroke, and colon cancer.
Vegan Diet And The Climate
Vegan lifestyles are good for the planet’s health, too. Eating animal-product-free can help clean the planet and save resources.
According to the 2014 documentary Cowspiracy, 70 to 90 percent of freshwater pollution in western countries is linked to animal agriculture. A study by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), which was published in Nature in 2018, found that a vegan diet uses five times less water than a meat-based one.
The most comprehensive analysis of farming’s impact on the planet looked at data from 40,000 farms in 119 countries. Researchers found that if everyone on the planet went vegan, global farmland use would drop by 75 percent. This move would free up landmass the size of Australia, China, the EU, and the U.S. combined.
Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore, who led the study, stated: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.”
EDMONTON – Canada’s first case of a rare swine flu variant has been found in a patient from central Alberta, but the province’s chief medical officer of health says it seems to be isolated.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw says the Influenza A H1N2v case was detected in mid-October after the patient showed up at an emergency department for medical care.
“This currently appears to be one isolated case,” Hinshaw said at a news conference Wednesday. “It is also the only case of influenza that has been reported so far this flu season.
“Influenza viruses that normally circulate in pigs, including H1N2, can infect people – although this is not common.”
When cases appear in humans, they are called ‘variant’ viruses and a ‘v’ is added to the end of the name.
Hinshaw said it’s the first reported case of H1N2v in Canada since 2005 when reporting became mandatory– and one of only 27 cases globally.
Health Canada said on its website the other cases include 24 in the United States and two in Brazil.
“Based on current evidence in Canada, the risk to human health is low,” it noted.
The federal agency said swine flu viruses don’t normally infect people, but there have been infrequent exceptions. It can be contracted by humans when they breath in respiratory droplets from an infected pig or touch something with the virus on it and then touch their mouth or nose.
“All have been linked to direct or indirect contact with swine and none of the previously reported cases have caused sustained human-to-human transmission,” addedHinshaw.
The Alberta patient, she said, had mild symptoms, was tested for influenza and COVID-19 as is routine in hospitals, and recovered quickly.
“There is no evidence at this time that the virus has spread further,” she said.
Hinshaw said Alberta Health is working closely with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, as well as Alberta Health Services and the Public Health Agency of Canada, to determine the source of the virus and to verify that no spread has occurred.
“Retrospective testing of central Alberta COVID samples from the past two weeks for influenza is almost complete and no positive influenza samples have been found,” she said.
Hinshaw said Alberta Health Services will offer optional influenza testing to anyone in central Alberta who shows up for COVID-19 testing.
Both she and Dr. Keith Lehman, the province’s chief veterinarian, said they are still investigating the source of the virus.
“At the moment, there are no links to slaughterhouses,” said Hinshaw, who added that they are looking into potential links to some pig farms in the area.
Lehman said the animal health investigation is using information provided by the patient.
“We have identified some potential sources and we are continuing to investigate,” he said.
Lehman added that it’s not unusual to see influenza in swine populations in Western Canada and around the world.
“Within Western Canada, we have routine surveillance that is undertaken for our swine farms and we tend to see anywhere from roughly 10 to 30 cases identified per quarter,” he said. “It is a virus that is not uncommon in our swine populations.”
Lehman said there’s no increased risk to other hog operations because they have strong biosecurity practices to prevent it from spreading. If a pig does contract it, it’s typically a mild illness, he said.
Officials stressed that H1N2 in pigs is not food-related.
“It is not transmissible to people through pork meat or other products that come from pigs and there is no risk associated with eating pork,” said Hinshaw.
EFSA reiterates that slaughter without stunning should not be practiced.
5 November 2020
A new Scientific Opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) identifies many animal welfare problems likely to occur in cattle at the time of slaughter, and propose measures to minimise and prevent them. Eurogroup for Animals calls on the EU Commission to take the assessment into account for the revision of the Regulation 1099/2009.
The killing of cattle for human consumption (slaughtering) can take place in a slaughterhouse or during on‐farm slaughter. A new EFSA assessment identified 40 hazards, most of them related to stunning and bleeding, that impact the welfare of these animals while slaughtered.
Particularly, EFSA identified 12 welfare consequences the cattle can be exposed to during slaughter:
Heat stress
Cold stress
Fatigue
Prolonged thirst
Prolonged hunger
Impeded movement
Restriction of movements
Resting problems
Social stress
Pain
Fear
Distress
This Scientific Opinion acknowledges that proper management plays a crucial preventive role and that 97.5% of the hazards identified have their origin in the lack of skills of the operators.
Methods are also causing animal welfare problems. In this regard, despite the Panel agreeing with the World Animal Health (OIE) list of unacceptable methods and procedures, it also raises concern towards certain practices, such as the unloading or moving of severely injured cattle, the use of painful stimuli to move animals, and slaughter without stunning.
EFSA reaffirms that “slaughter without stunning should not be practiced”, acknowledging that “pre-cut stunning is the only preventive measure for the welfare consequences connected with cutting”.
With this opinion EFSA set a list of hazards, welfare consequences and related corrective and preventive measures.
These findings should be used by the EU Commission to address the OIE standards and hopefully to inform the revision of the Regulation 1099/2009:eliminating all the practices assessed by EFSA as detrimental from an animal welfare perspective, and for which preventive and/or corrective measures do not exist.
WAV Comment – So the Danish government has always supported the fur industry. Now there will be no fur industry; but there will be many newly infected people from the fur farms. Karma ? – lets hope now the ignorance of the Danish people realise what they have been doing, and now the huge consequences ! – they should have banned the fur business years ago – but then of course, money goes before animal welfare.
Above – Employees from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration deal with a Covid outbreak at a mink farm in Jutland in October. Photograph: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/Reuters
The Guardian Article – link below.
Denmark announces cull of 15 million mink over Covid mutation fears
Mutated virus infects 12 humans, sparking concerns that effectiveness of future vaccine could be affected
The world’s largest mink producer, Denmark, says it plans to cull more than 15 million of the animals, due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said 12 people are already infected with the mutated virus and that the mink are now considered a public health risk.
“The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine,” Frederiksen said.
She said the army, police, and national emergency service would be mobilised to help farms with the mink cull, which will eradicate the entire Danish herd.
The authorities and breeders have already been culling the animals over the past few weeks in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Reuters reported that Denmark’s health minister said about half of 783 infected people in northern Denmark, home to a large number of mink breeders, had been found to have infections stemming from the farms.
Denmark is the world’s largest producer of mink fur and has 15 to 17 million animals on about 1,100 farms. According to reports, the latest figures from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, say Covid-19 infections have been found on more than 200 mink farms. The figures were confirmed by a Danish police press officer.
Finnish fur auctioneer Magnus Ljung, CEO of Saga Furs, was watching the Danish announcement. “It’s a shock. They will kill all mink in Denmark. They are talking about the risk of Covid-19 mutating in the mink, and going from mink to humans, and potentially affecting a future human vaccine.”
Ljung estimated the value of the 2020 mink population in Denmark to be between €350m and €400m (£270m-£360m).
“They got control of [Covid-19 mink infections] in Holland and there were a few cases in Spain and in Sweden. But it was all kept under control. [The Danish cull] is unexpected, for sure. Yes, it could happen in other countries. But I don’t want to speculate,” said Ljung.
“What we really need to do is end mink farming entirely and retrain the farmers,” said Birgitte Damm, policy adviser and vet with NGO Animal Protection Denmark.
Speaking from Amsterdam, Dr Joanna Swabe, Humane Society International/Europe’s senior director of public affairs, said: “Denmark is one of the largest fur producers on the planet, so a total shutdown of all Danish mink fur farms amid spiralling Covid-19 infections is a significant development.
“Although not a ban on fur farming, this move signals the end of suffering for millions of animals confined to small wire cages on Danish fur farms solely for the purposes of a trivial fur fashion that no one needs. We commend the Danish prime minister on her decision to take such an essential and science-led step to protect Danish citizens from the deadly coronavirus.”
How does one of the largest pork companies in the US go out of business at the height of a crazy global pork boom? And what does this tell us about pig farming today? The answer to that question starts where most of the world’s pigs end up, in China.
China produces and consumes almost half the world’s pork. But when African swine fever was detected in the Chinese pig herd in August 2018, it led to millions of hogs being culled in an attempt to control the spread. The drop in China’s pork production has been precipitous. Since 2018, swine populations have fallen to levels not seen since the 1990s, eliminating decades of growth.
And so the huge magnetic pull of the Chinese market has only grown. A kilogram of pork that fetches about $3.30 in the US wholesale market is worth nearly $7 in China, creating huge incentives for processors to send pork abroad.
The Covid pork boom
US producers jumped on the opportunity, and in the first five months of 2020, the amount of pork exported to China from the US was up 531% on the previous year, with exports accounting for almost one-third of US pork production.
You may be wondering, at this point, about the famous meat shortages at the beginning of the pandemic; weren’t meat plants shutting down because of sick workers and pigs being culled? In fact, though US domestic hog processing declined in April, processing rates rebounded relatively quickly, rising back to well above 2019 levels by June. That was partly thanks to industry activism to gain government support. Meat processing giant Tyson chairman John Tyson published a full page ad in the Washington Post and elsewhere in April saying “there will be limited supplies of our product available in grocery stores”. A ProPublica investigation found that meat industry actors may have had a direct hand in drafting the executive order that was announced by President Donald Trump just days later, which provided cover for meat plants to remain open or reopen despite the fact that workers were still getting and spreading Covid-19.
Looking back, it’s clear that meat shortages never actually became a problem. Livestock processing fell by only about 15% even during the peak of closures, and on top of that, there were 661m pounds of pork products warehoused in the US at the start of the pandemic, representing record storage levels for multiple cuts.
Consumers may have experienced brief and small scale “selling out” at retail locations, but this was likely a factor of either an individual store’s ability to keep shelves stocked or the store’s storage capacity relative to the high volume of purchases.
So what happened to Maxwell?
So why did Maxwell Foods, one of the biggest pork processors in the US, announce earlier this year that it would be quitting the sector by the end of 2021? About the same time, the company also filed a lawsuit, asserting that its demise wasn’t due to natural causes, but the direct result of actions by another company, one that was both an important customer and competitor: Smithfield Foods
Maxwell Foods is one of the largest pork producers in the world, making the list of the top 31 global pork mega-producers for possessing 100,000 breeding sows. The company reported producing 1.1 million pigs for slaughter in 2019. A subsidiary of Goldboro Milling Company, Maxwell has contracts with about 120 farmers in North Carolina to supply its animals. In the statement announcing the end of operations by mid-2021, the company cited “low prices” for its products as a primary driver.
But Smithfield, against which Maxwell has now filed a lawsuit, is even bigger. The company, owned by China’s WH Group, tops the list of global mega-producers with 1.23 million breeding sows, producing more than 6bn pounds lb of pork in 2019. The $16bn company is the largest hog producer in the world, and critically, Maxwell’s primary customer.
According to the lawsuit, in 1994, the two companies entered into an agreement that Smithfield would purchase all of Maxwell’s pork produced in the Carolinas and Virginia. As part of the agreement, Smithfield gave Maxwell a sort of “most favoured nation” status, agreeing to extend Maxwell the best price it was offering to any of its other partners.
Since then, the lawsuit has continued, and Smithfield’s aggressive pursuit of vertical integration has consolidated the market and left Maxwell vulnerable to Smithfield’s whims.
“Smithfield represents approximately 25% of the total pork processing market nationwide, which, in turn, has left Maxwell with no bargaining strength in its dealings with Smithfield.” Maxwell claims its revenues have been declining in particular since 2016, and that it has been selling pork at unsustainable prices to Smithfield ever since. When Maxwell requested repeatedly to renegotiate pricing, Smithfield declined, but Maxwell reports finding out later that Smithfield had been offering better prices to other partners, violating the “most favoured nation” pricing provision, and providing a basis for the lawsuit.
Scale matters, even between very big and huge
Lee Miller, Duke University
“Scale matters, even between very big and huge,” writes Lee Miller, an agricultural law expert at Duke University. “The Maxwells of the world – while enormous by historical standards – do not wield anything approaching the power of Smithfield, in either market or political spheres.” Smithfield’s foreign ownership adds to the complexity, he says, because a company that might at least have some trickle-down benefits for local communities now sends profits to foreign stockholders, leaving communities near pork production facilities and workers at slaughter plants with significantly less access to company decision-makers.
Then, in April 2020, Smithfield stopped purchasing the full amount of Maxwell hogs, according to Maxwell, instead buying only half. The company pulls no punches in its summation of these actions, writing: “Smithfield has engaged in its course of conduct … for the express purpose of harming Maxwell’s business and with the objective of driving Maxwell out of hog production altogether so as to benefit Smithfield-owned competitors of Maxwell.”
WAV Comment – Mulesing is one of the most hideous and barbaric practices undertaken on living sheep today, In Mulesing, farm workers force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars, and cut chunks of flesh from their backsides. This is alleged to prevent ‘flystrike’; something which can be done with medication nowdays, but which the industry refuses to use because of costs involved for better animal welfare.
Not only does Australia still undertake chopping chunks of flesh off of living animals; it is still very involved in transporting live animals across the globe re live exports. One has to question the Australian approach to animal welfare when they are still heavily involved in practices from the dark ages.
The Peta proposed mulesed lamb statue sounds like a great idea – as they say; surely the industry would welcome a statue designed to inform people about this element of wool production, given how hard it has fought for decades to continue mulesing, even in the face of public outcry and worldwide designer boycotts?
What has the industry got to hide ? – it either stops mulesing or it has a statue to inform the world that it still undertakes carving up live animals. They have a choice.
In the following you can see pictures of mulesed sheep.
Posted on 27 October 2020 at 8:16PM by PETA Australia
Following news that a parliamentary inquiry in New South Wales has failed to recommend ceasing the practice of mulesing sheep in the state, PETA has written to the Mayor of Goulburn, home of the “Big Merino”, and asked permission to erect a new statue for the area – a giant mulesed lamb.
More than 70% of Australia’s wool comes from sheep who are mulesed, a barbaric practice in which workers force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars, and cut chunks of flesh from their backsides. This is terrifying for prey animals like sheep, who cry out in fear and pain. It also leaves them with open wounds – which, ironically, are prone to flystrike, which mulesing ostensibly aims to prevent.
When PETA US first exposed mulesing to the world back in the early 2000s, the Australian wool industry promised to phase it out by 2010. Since then, numerous celebrities, consumers, fabric buyers, and fashion houses worldwide have called for an end to mulesing.
In 2018, New Zealand has made mulesing illegal, and yet it remains prevalent in Australia.
Surely the industry would welcome a statue designed to inform people about this element of wool production, given how hard it has fought for decades to continue mulesing, even in the face of public outcry and worldwide designer boycotts?
Sheep Need Your Help
Not only does the Australian wool industry mules lambs, it also cuts off their tails and castrates males without any pain relief. Shearers, who are paid per fleece, work roughly and violently, pinning petrified sheep down, punching them in the face with metal clippers, cutting them open, and shoving them down chutes. Over the past six years, PETA’s affiliates have visited 43 farms across New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria and have found cruel treatment of animals at every single one.
With so many animal-free, environmentally friendly fabrics now available, there is simply no need to continue inflicting so much pain on sheep.
The wool industry and the government have both failed sheep, so it’s up to each of us to act. Now, more than ever, we must vote with our wallets and leave wool out of our wardrobes.
Happy World Vegan Day! We’ve put together some of our favourite recipes from around the world to celebrate this amazing international cuisine.
We’ve just launched our incredible new programme V7 where users can try vegan for a week! You’ll receive a complete shopping list for seven days of delicious recipes, plus handy tips and advice.
Our guest chef this month is the incredible TJ Waterfall (Meat Free Fitness) – specialising in vegan sports nutrition, he has provided us with some healthy and incredibly delicious recipes: win, win!
We’d like to whet your appetite for when international travel is back on the agenda – take a vicarious journey to Paris with our guide to this plant-based city of delights!
Sending you lots of love during this challenging time.
Happy cooking, eating and reading ♥ The Vegan Recipe Club Team
Check out all the Viva ! Podcasts on a whole range of animal / vegan issues by clicking on the following link:
Denmark will prohibit the tethering of cattle from 2027 and is thus taking a forward-looking step towards the more animal-friendly keeping of cattle. PROVIEHcalls on the German government to take a role model from our neighboring country and also to ban as soon as possible the form of husbandry that is not compatible with the Animal Welfare Act.
Cows in chains, Germany
October 13, 2020: The Danish government has decided to phase out the tethering of cattle.
By 2027, the fixation of social and curious animals in Denmark will be a thing of the past. Organic farms will have to get out of tethering as early as 2024, and the ban will even apply to new buildings in 2022.
PROVIEH welcomes this decision in favor of animals.
Denmark’s Agriculture Minister Mogens Jensendescribed the decision as a compromise solution through which animal welfare is actively promoted, but which also gives farmers sufficient time to adapt to the new rules thanks to the transition periods.
PROVIEH would like an equally energetic government that credibly implements the state goal of animal protection anchored in the Basic Law and also in Germany puts an end to the permanent restraint of animals.
Cows in chains, Germany
“Denmark is showing courage with the long-overdue abolition of tethering – I would like our government to show similar courage. Tethering deprives the social, curious cattle of any opportunity to express their own behavior and is not compatible with the Animal Welfare Act. That is why Germany should urgently follow suit. “(Anne Hamester, specialist for cattle at PROVIEH)
Background
In Germany, every fourth dairy cow is still fixed in a tethered post. This type of husbandry is still very present in southern Germany in particular.
First and foremost, tethering completely contradicts the species-specific needs of cattle and is therefore prohibited: The animals can neither move, clean, scrub nor interact with each other of their own species, for example by licking each other as a proof of friendship.
In addition, curious animals cannot explore their surroundings, cannot follow their natural reproductive behavior, and do not have any social behavior.
Thus, the scientific debate comes to the consensus that tethering is not an animal-friendly procedure, as it severely restricts the species-specific behavior of the animals.
PROVIEH has therefore been calling for an end to tethering for years. Even the Federal Council rated tethering as a violation of animal welfare in 2016, but the legislature is writhing around a ban on tethering all year round.
And I mean…The “tethering”: it is one of the most painful practices of the milk mafia!
That means for each of these cattle: to spend 275 days a year on a 2 m2 area, tied at the neck with a chain or between two metal rods. So getting up and lying down remains the only movement that is still possible.
They can’t walk around, turn around, or even lick areas of itchy skin. Often the cows are tied so closely together that they cannot lie down at the same time.
It is a crime that is done to cattle when they have to eke out their lives in one place in small, dark stables with a chain around their necks.
Not even straw is required by law and so the animals lie on the hard concrete floor.
Their entire life the cows live in a dark barn that is dirty with feces. Lying in one’s own excrement causes protracted and painful udder diseases and skin wounds.
Although many sides are calling for a ban on this cruelty to animals, the lobbyist of the meat industry and German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner speaks out against a ban on this attitude. It is a shame for Germany that this person is still in this post.
Denmark is so far the only EU country that expressly prohibits the incorporation of laws from 2022.
In the rest of the EU, the milk and meat mafia successfully prevented an explicit ban, because for them the cows are one thing above all else: milk machines and meat.
We will continue to oppose this painful bondage, no animal is born to live in chains.
We are sure that tethering will soon be a thing of the past.
Well this is the best news ever to start the weekend. As many of you will know, we have been very critical of the South Korean government for not taking action on this issue several years ago – it was one electoral issue that the government campaign was won on – read more:
Regardless, now people power is getting the changes; with or without the help of governments. They should take note; especially with the issue in the USA on 3/11/20.
We at WAV have also tried to play our part and support our wonderful friends at ‘Korean Animal Rights’ (KARA) https://m.facebook.com/karakoreaanimalrights/ – ‘Korean Dogs’ and the ‘Humane Society International’ (HIS) https://www.hsi.org/ in getting these hell holes closed down. It now looks as if, with your support and actions; a much changing (pro animal welfare) stance by younger Koreans, and the fate of the suffering dogs being given world attention; South Korea is now on the way to closing down all of its dog meat farms – and that is the word from a dog farmer himself (Mr Kim), who declares that “There is no future in dog meat at all, it’s already dying and will fall apart completely,”.
So; people sometimes ask us the big question if signing a petition or sending the odd e mail; to authorities does really make a difference. Here is your proof it does, that with constant tenacity by animal welfare organisations to continue the fight; un questionable evidence showing the cruelty involved; supported by realistic video footage; be in no doubt; your actions do make a huge difference, so keep it up.
The closure of Yuliin is the next big target on the dog meat issue.
Check out some of our campaign work on Yulin by clicking on the following:
Before we go; please spare a thought for all the dogs of the meat trade who are not with us any more. They were cold, they were fed the worst scraps ever; and their end was the most despicable ever. All for the want of some human beings. Now we move on and will turn corners to stop this obscene abuse.
Regards Mark
WAV.
From ‘The Independent’ (UK national newspaper) – London;
South Korea starts to close dog meat farms as attitudes change
‘There is no future in dog meat at all, it’s already dying and will fall apart completely,’ says former dog meat farmer
A charity has closed its 17th dog meat farm in South Korea as more people in the country support a ban on dog meat consumption.
Washington-based animal rights group, Humane Society International, announced it closed a farm that had nearly 200 dogs, which were bred and raised for slaughter in the dog meat trade.
The dogs, mainly Korean jinxes and mastiffs, were rescued and taken to the US to be adopted.
The farm was operated by a farmer named Kim Il-hwan, who had been in the industry for around 40 years. In exchange for closing the farm, he was given financial compensation and career assistance from HSI.
Mr Kim said the industry was shrinking and business had been difficult for the past decade.
“There is no future in dog meat at all, it’s already dying and will fall apart completely,” he said of the industry. “And dog farming is physically hard and I’m getting old, so I want to get out. 40 years ago it was different, but now it’s over for dog farming.”
An opinion poll commissioned by HSI suggests that Mr Kim is right – 84 per cent of those polled said they do not or will not eat dog and almost 60 per cent supported a legislative ban on the trade.
The poll, conducted by Neilsen, also found 57 per cent of South Koreans believe dog meat consumption reflects poorly on the country, an increase from 37 per cent in 2017.
Nara Kim, HSI’s dog meat campaigner in South Korea, said: “More people in South Korea are interested in animal welfare and the environment, and so when they see footage of our dog farm closures on the news showing the animals suffering and filthy conditions, or read about dog meat exposés by other Korean groups, they are really shocked and upset.
“The inevitable drop in sales is leading more dog farmers to help them start a new life. But we hope in time the Korean government will adopt this type of approach to phase out the dog meat industry for good.”
The dogs rescued from this farm will arrive in the US on Friday and will be housed in temporary shelters in Washington DC and Montreal, Canada.
According to Kitty Block, CEO of HSI, the dogs will then go to animal shelter partners in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania after several weeks to be adopted out to the public.
“This is the 17th dog meat farm that HSI has helped close, part of a campaign to show dog meat farmers, the South Korean government and the South Korean people that there is a better path forward for us all, humans and animals, a path that celebrates the human-animal bond in the most special of ways,” she added.
Dog meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine and around one million dogs are believed to be eaten every year. However, the popularity of the meat has declined and consuming dog meat has become taboo among the younger generation.
In 2018, a city court in Bucheon ruled the killing of dogs for meat is illegal. The ruling was hailed by activists who said it could pave the way for outlawing dog meat consumption entirely.
Cows in chains, Germany
Cows in chains, Germany
World Animals Voice 