Happy News for a Happy New Year!

Dear IAKA Supporters,

I am overjoyed to kick off 2017 with some wonderful news: the city of Seongnam has decided to ban the slaughter and sale of dogs for meat purposes in the city. This means the closure of Moran Market, South Korea’s largest dog meat market.

The administration of Seognam Mayor Lee Jae-Myung reached an agreement with the 22 dog meat vendors in the market to provide compensation in order to transition them to other lines of work. This is the best possible scenario because it eliminates the argument that closing dog farms/markets is a threat to the workers’ livelihood.

For over 30 years the Korean Ministry of Agriculture has essentially ignored the plight of dogs in Korea for a variety of complicated reasons. They don’t want to deal with the farmers and the older generation of Koreans who are the main consumers of dog meat. We salute Mayor Jae-Myung’s bravery in taking a definitive stand against the dog meat industry in Korea. We also salute the many Korean animal activists and animal-loving citizens who fought so hard for this change in their society.

This is the first step toward transitioning dog meat from the legal grey-area it currently occupies and obtaining a full protective mandate for companion animals. We hope this is a new beginning for Korean animals and we must encourage further action from government officials in other Korean cities.

To that end, we have enclosed some protest cards addressed to the Mayors of Gupo City and Daegu City to encourage them to follow suit. Please sign and post them to Korea. We hope this and similar action by other animal welfare advocates, both outside and within Korea, will lead to the closure of the dog meat portion of Gupo Market and Chilsung Market in Daegu.

We hope this news brings a new joy to you for this new year, and gives you hope that we can put and end to the slaughter.

Best Wishes,

Kyenan Kum