Advertisement
Published: December 16th 2011
Edit Blog Post
I talked to my dog on Skype last weekend.
Yes, I'm one of those people who thinks their pets are actual humans. I talk to my dog like he's a simple child, repeating over and over, "How are you, Jacky? Hello! I love you! I love you! I miss you!" as he prances around the room, "smiling" and panting heavily. Jack is a golden lab who is part terrier meaning he's got a goregous coat of fur and adorable floppy ears. I used to want to take him to the hairdresser and ask for strawberry blonde highlights like his. Basically, he's a stud in the dog world. Proven fact, as I've seen many female dogs try to rape him on my runs. Disturbing times..
I had never loved dogs before we got Jack from the pound. We've had dogs since I was a baby and I'd always liked them and found them to be a comfort, but didn't really want to play with them or be around them. They were just there to hike with my dad and bother my cat Tiger who I constantly had to protect. Jack, as a puppy, was a devil dog. He tore up
everything, pooped wherever he pleased, and jumped on me with dirty paws. I hated him. He kept me up at night whining and when my brother refused, I had to sleep with the thing that annoyed me so much. But, as he grew older and well-trained I found that an animal actually became my friend. During the summers, I would go on runs with him and he would always stay by my side, keeping with my stride. We'd play in the river, although he was too scared to swim and I was too scared I'd have to save him. He would perform for guests by shaking hands or racing out the door like a total idiot if I raised my finger to my lips and said "SHT SHT SHT" fiercely. This was code for squirrel. Jack is very happy go lucky dog who jumps like a rabbit through flowers and is friendly to every stranger he meets. Just being around him makes me feel like an exuberant child. I had become a dog lover.
In my first week in Korea, I heard the rumors about people eating dog. It sounded ridiculous and I doubted I would ever see it. It must be one of those things like eating tarantulas, it's just a gimmick that only a few brave souls try. But, as I walked around my town, I saw beautiful dogs with white yellow fur in cages too small for them to move in, chained outside with no food and surrounded by their own feces. These dogs are the Nureongi breed and they are raised to be food, not pets. Treating dogs like livestock could be bearable for me if they looked like ugly little demons but these dogs look sweet and noble. You can tell how horribly they are treated just by looking at them. When you have a pet dog that you love and you see dogs that resemble it being yelled at, kicked at, and chained outside in the rain, it's like someone has stamped on your heart. I started taking a new route to school because I couldn't stand looking at the dogs who would soon be on a plate.
Attitudes towards dogs in Korea is changing though. Many Koreans would never have had a dog but in the 1990's a trend of carrying around small dogs began. Nowadays, I'll see woman with primped up little puppies in their purse or under their arm. My co-teacher even goes hiking with her schnauzer. It's rare to see Koreans walking a large dog on a leash, but lately I've seen Nureongi's being hugged by children and played with my adults which can only be a step in the right direction. If Koreans start to see dogs as something besides vermin, then I think the want to eat them may lessen.
Sadly, cats are seen as even below dogs. Completely worthless because Koreans don't really eat them and don't want them around. They prowl the streets with mangled faces and missing limbs, scratching through trash bags for a meal. On my bike ride home, I saw the ginger cat, who I've come to think of as the leader of the rag tag Korean cat gang, sitting by the river, curled up on a rock, basking in the sun. It reminded me of my cat Tiger, who I had for 14 years before she died. I wonder if some of those cats have even had anyone pet them.
Dog meat is still very popular in Korea though, especially in the summer time when it's put in a spicy soup. Although, the government has classified it as a "repungent food" and it is outlawed in many restaurants, it is still widely served. Older men especially like to eat it, as it "improves stamina". The thing that bothers me the most is not that people in Korea eat dog. I wish they didn't, but this is a different culture where dogs are not seen the same as in America and I understand that. The main problem is that these dogs are beat to death, choked, and even hung when being killed for their meat. It's basic animal cruelty and it's all over the world being done to cows, chickens, pigs, etc. That is something that needs to change and yet, even with public awareness and activists trying their hardest, it still happens.
When I came back from California, I showed my students pictures of me and Jack playing. "So cute!!", they all said and laughed at pictures of him leaping in the air. I asked, "Do any of you have dogs?" About half the class raised their hands. The younger generation of Korea may be the ones who keep dogs like mine off of dinner plates and in loving homes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.414s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 65; dbt: 0.1663s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb