The reason why dogs came to be considered as a valuable food product by Koreans is due to. Most of it is covered by mountains, so small patches of land suitable for farming were used only for these purposes. There was virtually no space for grazing or growing fodder crops, so it was not easy to raise cows, pigs or sheep.

Residents of the central territories did not have access to seafood, so proteins began to be obtained from more accessible dog meat.

Dog meat is a product with a special status

However, the inclusion of this meat in the Korean diet does not mean that it often appears on the table. Dog meat was initially treated as a seasonal dish, so its consumption was limited to intervals of two to three months, or even less often. Traditional Korean soup posinthan is considered medicinal and is consumed only after a prolonged illness or severe fatigue. On other days, people in Korea eat beef and pork, which has become much easier to obtain thanks to artificial feed.

In traditional Korean medicine, not only dog ​​meat was used. It was believed that almost all parts of the animal's body had healing properties - including bones, teeth, eyes, blood and bile.

One of the most common practices was the use of dog meat during pregnancy and childbirth. It was believed that dog by-products facilitated the birth of a child, increased the amount of milk and helped the mother recover faster.

As for the seasonality of dog meat, Koreans believe that posinthan helps withstand the heat. It is cooked and served during the three hottest days of the summer in mid-July.

Criticism from foreigners

Traditionally, Koreans have had no ethical qualms about the idea that it is perfectly acceptable to eat dog meat. In their minds, dogs are no different from other animals, and talk about the humanity of eating them was perceived as hypocrisy and double standards. In addition, in the gastronomic traditions of the country there are also more strange and exotic recipes - for example, eating a whole live octopus, which does not want to be eaten, so it clings with its tentacles to the neck and face of the person who is trying to swallow it. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart.

However, South Korea faced sharp criticism from Western society, which began to establish contacts with the country in the second half of the 20th century.

One of the most scandalous cases of discussion was Brigitte Bardot's statement that a nation that eats dogs is a nation of savages. Naturally, such an insult caused a wave of negativity against the actress in the country. Dozens of articles have appeared in the Korean press stating that the nation has the right to preserve cultural traditions and is not obliged to indulge the whims of foreigners.

However, they were still forced to make concessions in Korea. During the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, all restaurants specializing in serving dog meat were closed, and this dish was ordered to be temporarily removed from the menu. However, the trade in dog meat continued “under the counter”, and wealthy officials often became clients of such establishments, and they approved temporary restrictions. At the same time, under the influence of Western public organizations, the largest dog market in South Korea was closed, where animals were kept in cruel and unsanitary conditions and were killed in inhumane ways.

Current situation

In South Korea, since the end of the twentieth century, after an economic breakthrough and the beginning of close cooperation with the West, the attitude towards dogs as pets has changed somewhat. They began to appear in children's literature and cartoons, and in big cities it became fashionable to have small lap dogs. However, full-fledged sympathy for these animals is still far away. The gastronomic culture of eating dog meat has not declined either, and Koreans have even become less embarrassed about the fact that Western society condemns them.

In North Korea, due to minimal contacts with the outside world, the situation is specific. Most residents are not even aware that in other countries their tradition of eating dogs is considered immoral or wrong.

But even if they knew about this, the situation would hardly change: the government supports the position that the Korean nation must solve its own problems and is not obliged to answer to anyone.

Therefore, they certainly would not change their traditions to suit the demands of the hostile West.

Almost every Westerner knows that they eat dogs in Korea. This is generally one of the main stereotypes associated with Koreans. Fewer people have heard that Koreans are afraid of cats. However, this knowledge about what role our familiar four-legged pets play in Korean culture is, as a rule, limited. Meanwhile, in reality, everything is somewhat more complicated: not every Korean dog is destined to end his life as a soup set, and cats are gradually turning from heroes of frightening legends and horror films into a status attribute of a successful and advanced person.

Not only food, but also a friend

In Korean national cuisine, there are indeed dog meat dishes. The most famous of them is posinthan. This name can be roughly translated as “longevity soup.” It is consumed mainly in the summer heat, and it is believed that this soup cures arthritis, sweating, impotence and other ailments. However, dog meat is by no means an everyday food, and idle talk about the fact that Koreans sell dog meat under the guise of pork looks almost like “they sold sturgeon, passing it off as pollock.” After all, a dog is a predator, and it must be fed with meat, which will take more to fatten than it will produce “healthy” meat at the end. So it is very much a seasonal food, partly used to attract exotic lovers.

There are several local dog breeds in Korea, and not all of them are food dogs. The most famous - Chindokke - looks like a short-haired husky or Japanese inu and is distinguished by its special intelligence and intelligence. Back in the 1990s, food dogs were actively sold in Korea at seasonal markets, and it was similar to how in our markets they sell chickens or piglets, which can be slaughtered right in the presence of the buyer.

Of course, the tradition of dog-eating causes cultural shock among Europeans, although in other food traditions eating frogs or consuming dairy products is no less disgusting. In addition, animal rights activists oppose the “barbaric tradition of slaughter,” and when the Olympics were to be held in Seoul in 1988, animal rights advocates forced the government to remove all taverns that served dog meat into the inner neighborhoods so that their signs would not be visible to foreigners. However, when in 2002, during the World Cup, fighters against posinthan began the campaign again, the Korean government responded differently: “This is our national tradition, we do not impose it on anyone or advertise it, but it is our right. Therefore, we will not take any action to limit posinthan.”

Nowadays, attitudes towards dogs (and, in fact, towards pets in general) are influenced not only by globalization, but also by urbanization. In a big city, the animal loses its traditional agricultural role, turning into a pet. In part, four-legged pets serve as a surrogate for children, in part as a status symbol: since the square footage of the average Korean apartment does not allow keeping pets, either a wealthy person or a desperate fashionista can own pets.

These considerations also determine the choice of animals that Koreans keep. On the one hand, caring for a pet should not take much time, on the other, communication with it should be active. Large dogs require too much time and space, and birds and fish do not provide adequate communication. What remains are either decorative dogs or cats, whose lives in Korea will be discussed in more detail.

Scary and terrible

Cats appeared in Korea in the 11th-12th centuries, and since the 17th century they can be seen in traditional paintings, where they bask among flowers or watch birds. However, from at least the end of the 19th century until the beginning of this century, the cat evoked a mixture of disgust and superstitious horror among Koreans. There is a funny story about how a Korean prince visited an American mission where cats were kept to fight mice. When a kitten jumped into his lap, who was considered a reformer and generally a progressive person, the prince was so frightened that he fainted.

Korean fears

In traditional Korean culture, the fear of cats is one of the most common superstitions. Only the fear of the number “four” can compete with it (in Chinese, the word “four” is consonant with the word “to die”; from China, the superstitious horror of the “four” spread to Korea and Japan) and the belief that a fan that is not turned off at night slowly sucks the life out of a person.

There are still many superstitions associated with cats. For example, Koreans believe that on the last night of the old year, a terrible demonic cat looks for shoes left outside the threshold near houses. And if it finds them, then it does not do with the shoes what you thought - the infernal animal tries on the shoes, thereby changing for the worse the entire future fate of their owner. The tail of a cat that enters a house can be held by the spirit of the deceased, but it also happens that the cat itself can be possessed by the spirit of a murdered woman. The latter superstition, however, appeared under the influence of Japanese films about werecats, which were not shown in Korea until the 1990s as part of the fight against Japanese cultural expansion, but their plots were regularly remade in the Korean way. By the way, some Korean nationalists even explained to the author of these lines their dislike for cats as follows: “The most famous cat is the maneki-neko. Maneki-neko is a symbol of Japan. What good can come from the colonialists?”

Photo: Zuma / Panoramic / Global Look

It is mainly stray cats who suffer from this attitude, of which there are from 30 to 200 thousand in Seoul (depending on who is counting). They usually look intimidated and ragged. In addition, some doctors of traditional medicine consider cat meat to be a cure for joint pain, so in some seasonal markets they also sell cats, which are destined to become food. Often, compassionate Europeans save them from this fate. However, compared to posinthan, “cat tincture” is much less common, and animal advocates are actively debunking the myth of its usefulness.

The wind of change

Life for cats in Korea has only begun to change for the better in the last 10-15 years. This is due to the love for cats that has taken over the Internet, the popularity of anime “kawaii nekos,” and a certain increase in living standards, which reduces the need to take out aggression on stray animals. True, a dog is still considered a favorite pet, and only about one in 5,000 Koreans own a cat. Moreover, as a rule, this is an expensive purebred cat, a sign of status, the price of which can be twice as high as the European one.

Attitudes towards stray cats are also changing. They appear not only near Buddhist temples, as before, but also near some taverns, where they are fed by foreigners. Taking a stray cat home is considered bad manners, they say, it is his karma to live on the street. But there are also those who regularly feed such cats. The attitude towards these people in society is not very good: it is believed that only those who do not have friends and have not developed a career do this. Therefore, compassionate Koreans feed street cats in the dark.

I went to Korea for examination and treatment, but I decided to make an interesting trip out of the dull medical examination, and I succeeded. A complete examination, thanks to the first-class system of the Korean Severance clinic, took me only 5 hours instead of the usual month in Russia, so I devoted most of the tour to studying Korea.

And you know, it's really cool here. I stopped uploading photos to my Instagram (nemihail), but now I use it exclusively for video stories, which subscribers see immediately after I took them, and after a day they disappear forever, a very interesting format, so if you want to travel with me , then add yourself, there is still a video from this restaurant hanging there. Well, if you are more accustomed to the photo version, then everything can be quickly found on my Telegram channel (telegram.me/nemihail).

The tradition of eating dogs is gradually dying, today it is quite expensive and young people are not ready to overpay, so the visitors of such restaurants, with rare exceptions, are older people and tourists who are interested in trying everything.

This is quite an old and very famous restaurant in Seoul.

As in many traditional restaurants, people eat while sitting on the floor on special cushions, and the floor itself is well heated.

The finished dogs are butchered right in the common room in your presence.

The cost of a 200g serving is 25,000 KRW (Korean won or $25)

The finished meat is steamed on a special burner with a small gas cylinder.

Almost any national restaurant serves Panchhan snacks. The minimum composition of panchhan is kimchi (cabbage).

And radish.

The most delicious meat of a dog is on the ribs. The cut meat is placed on an onion bed and partially covered with onions.

While the main dish is steaming, dog meat soup is served on the table. Like many Korean soups, it is very tasty, but somehow I couldn’t pick out anything special about the dog in it.

Rice must be served with the soup. Koreans use it like we use bread.

The meat is served with a special sauce made with sesame oil.

The contents of this plate should be mixed well, the meat should be rolled in this sauce and wrapped in onions. This is how Koreans eat meat.

Local vodka is also very popular among ordinary Koreans; it is not very strong and costs only $1. Vodka is almost always advertised by young Korean women.

Well, and most importantly, dog meat is very tasty, to my taste it resembles lamb meat, I would even say that it is more tender and tastier than lamb meat and there is no obsessive lamb smell. So if you have the opportunity, don't deny yourself the pleasure.

Would you eat dog?

Perhaps few topics can generate as much interest as the topic of Koreans eating dog meat. A person may not have specific ideas about the social structure or history of this country, but he will definitely show off his “dog erudition.” Quite often, the topic of eating dogs becomes the subject of jokes and sarcastic remarks. But despite all this, many misconceptions and myths still arise around this topic.

Doggy There are many different names for his soup in Korea. For example, the oldest is considered to be “gejangguk” (개장국) - a soup made from dog meat and soybean paste. Another name is posinthan (보신탕), today it is mainly served in Korean restaurants. Also, the names “yongyangtang” (영양탕) – a soup enriched with nutrients and “sacholtang” (사철탕) – a soup for any season are often used.

If we look at history, the dog was not historically a domestic animal. The concept that a dog is “man’s friend” came only towards the end of the last century under the influence of globalization along with Western values. Moreover, in ordinary speech the words “dog” and “dog” are considered abusive. If you look at popular collections of folk tales and legends, you will see that there are not so many stories in which the dog acts as the hero’s devoted friend. But much more often there are stories where dogs are presented either as neutral animals without any specific characteristics, or even as dangerous and unkind creatures sent from the other world.

The concerns of some tourists who fear that in a Korean restaurant they will be given a dog instead of the beef or pork they ordered are, to put it mildly, groundless. Don’t worry, they won’t slip it to you, the dog is more expensive. If you think Koreans eat dog every day, then you are very mistaken. Dog meat was never an everyday food, it was either seasonal or medicinal food. But in North Korea, such food is more common. There, dog soup is called tankogikuk (단고기국) and they are not at all embarrassed to eat it.

By the way, it is interesting to note that another popular Korean soup these days, yukkaejang, is also related to dog meat. And although today only beef is put in it, the second syllable (“ke” - dog) in its name treacherously betrays the “dog origin” of this dish.

One of the non-sports leitmotifs of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang was the struggle of animal rights activists and all those who sympathize with animals against the old Korean tradition of eating dog meat.

It all started with the fact that the bronze medalist of the team race Dutch speed skater Jan Blokhuysen at a press conference either out of annoyance that he had to settle for third place, or out of real concern, he accused the Koreans of treating dogs poorly. “Please treat dogs better in this country,” advised Blokhuysen. The Koreans, who from time to time throw a stone into their garden, did not really like the athlete’s attack, so they staged a flash mob on social networks in which they accused the Europeans of interfering in the internal affairs of the country. As a result, the head of the Dutch sports delegation apologized: “I am forced to raise the issue of the incident that occurred at the press conference. On behalf of our entire delegation, I formally apologize for the athlete’s remarks.”

Soon, rumors appeared in the media that dog meat is sold in Korea on every corner and even in the Olympic village, and in public catering every now and then they strive to replace chicken or beef meat (chickens and cows are not so actively sympathized with at the Games) with dog meat. Animal rights activists, who had previously disliked cruel Asian traditions, quickly joined the conflict and took to the streets with slogans: “A dog is your friend or your food,” and photo and video footage of dogs being killed on Korean farms. They had previously signed a petition calling for a boycott of the Olympics in a country where they eat pets.

“South Korea is the 14th largest economy in the world, but in this country 2.5 million dogs and thousands of cats are slaughtered every year. This is called "healthy eating." Animals are forced to endure hardships and unimaginable torments from the moment they are born until the day they are killed. And South Koreans truly believe that the more a dog suffers, the more it will enrich the quality of the meat and increase the health benefits for the consumer. If South Korea wants to be respected as a nation of conscience, then South Koreans should strengthen their animal welfare laws and permanently ban the consumption of dog and cat meat,” the petition said.

Some Olympians joined the animal rights movement and decided to independently rescue the dogs that Koreans let into the “longevity soup.” For example, a gold medal winner Canadian figure skater Megan Duhamel will take home with her a dog that she bought from a dog meat farm. The girl named the puppy Mu-tai and wrote on social networks that he loves to sit in her arms. Now Duhamel encourages all athletes to follow her example. Coach Duhamel was surprised where the athlete found the dog, because there are no such farms near the Olympic Village, and no dogs were seen.

WHY DO THEY EAT DOGS IN KOREA?

Eating dog meat in Asian countries is an old tradition; only in China dog meat has been used as food since 500 BC. They ate dog meat in ancient times not only in Asia, but, for example, in Mexico. As for Korea, initially dogs were not perceived there as “friends of man,” but were raised as livestock. Today, nothing has changed in this regard; dogs, like cats, are not pets. According to Koreans, the difference between livestock and pet is subjective.

There is absolutely no religious or mythological explanation in the tradition of eating dogs, he told a MIR 24 correspondent. Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Korean Sector of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Vorontsov. According to him, Koreans, like other Asians, eat dog meat because they believe it is healthy.

“This is a national tradition. Why do some people eat pork and others don't? In the eyes of Muslims, we can all also look blasphemous. Why do you need to go with your charter to someone else’s monastery? This is an ancient tradition that was born long before the advent of Europe, and in China already at that time there was a highly developed civilization and a whole class of highly educated people. It is good for health, they say. Many people consume various animals to maintain a healthy body. There is no religious or mythical explanation. Koreans prefer to eat specially farmed dog breeds, but that doesn't mean a pooch can't get into the pot. Many people talk about the cruel way of killing dogs, but why don't lethal injections be given to cows, pigs and chickens? Probably, the Dutch would also be indignant if they were told that their national mills were already tired,” said the historian.

Asians believe that dog meat increases potency and cures tuberculosis, which affects, for example, many rice harvesters who spend most of their time working in water. Such explanations allow Koreans to maintain dog markets, which horrify tourists and all those who are not close to this part of Asian culture. Dogs are kept there, really, like cattle. In cramped cages there are 20-30 animals sitting on top of each other. They are slaughtered right in front of the customers. Today in South Korea there are more than 17 thousand industrial dog farms and 2-2.5 million dogs are slaughtered every year.

But even such conditions of life and death for dogs are the result of the struggle of animal rights activists, including world-famous stars. Literally 10 years ago, dogs were slaughtered right on the streets, and not in a specially designated place.

The fact that Koreans, like other Asians, will give up dog meat in the near future is unlikely, Korean scholars believe. Today, dog meat is a holiday food that is not included in the daily diet, he said Candidate of Historical Sciences at the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Lomonosov Moscow State University Konstantin Asmolov.

“Koreans have long responded to these accusations like this: “. Nothing can be done about it." If during the 1988 Olympics, when the Koreans were more dependent on external opinion, they renamed dog soup "longevity soup" and removed such restaurants from the streets, placing them inside alleys rather than on main streets, but now the Korean position boils down to the following: “We don’t force anyone, we don’t do anything with particular cruelty, we don’t include this food as mandatory. “Whoever wants to be offended, let him be offended, but we are not going to look back at anyone.”

For a number of reasons, the tradition of eating dogs is associated specifically with Korea. Everyone knows that Koreans eat dogs. But a dog is food for festive occasions. All kinds of talk that the Koreans will sell you dog meat under the guise of pork is the same as assuming that they will cook you sturgeon and pass it off as pollock. Dog meat is not an everyday food - it is an elite food for special occasions. But this meat is not very expensive,” Asmolov said.

At the same time, the expert notes that today they eat less dogs in Korea, and the topic itself often becomes a litmus test for the media and the public. Korean society is not aggressive about discussing this problem. We're used to it.

“All these things are connected with the fact that, firstly, a more Europeanized generation has appeared, for whom a dog is not food, but an object for “usi-pusi,” and secondly, a generation has passed away that remembers what it’s like to live in the village and slaughter livestock there ourselves. Young people are accustomed to the fact that sausage is miraculously produced in their refrigerator. Moreover, since Korean public opinion is not very aggressive in this direction, this is a good way to score points on a topic that you can raise without significant risk. That is why this scandal is not really a scandal. On the one hand, animal rights activists have something to worry about, but on the other hand, have you seen many demonstrations for the rights of French frogs? Please note that in relation to China or Korea, animal rights activists are foaming, and for some reason they forget about other countries where dogs are also eaten,” Asmolov noted.

Bans on killing dogs have been introduced in the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong, but experts say the ban has not been implemented in practice. Dogs have been killed and are still being killed. But there is room for socio-political maneuver and the operation of black markets, of which there are quite a few, and their activities can no longer be regulated. In Vietnam, even more dogs are killed than in Korea - about five million a year, and even stolen dogs are often used for meat there. The level of dog consumption has continued in Cambodia.

HOW THE DEATH OF DOGS CELEBRATE IN CHINA

When experts talk about the lack of ritual in eating dog meat, they still miss one important event that takes place in China. Every year in the city of Yulin, from June 21 to June 30, the summer solstice is celebrated, the most important tradition of which is eating dog meat. In 10 days, city residents slaughter about 10-15 thousand dogs, believing that they are driving away the heat of the summer months.

In June 2015, a petition was prepared in the UK demanding that the festival be banned; the initiative collected three million signatures. The Chinese government even met the public halfway and banned the bloody holiday. However, this led to citizens accusing the state of aiding European influence in the country. The government quickly abandoned the ban, arguing that the Yulin festival was too old a national tradition and that dogs were killed humanely these days. However, footage that appears online from time to time from the Yulin festival suggests otherwise. Joyful Chinese sit at tables and watch dogs being killed.