A DOGGIE DISH

Guinea Pigs in Peru, spiders in Cambodia, anything that moves or used to in China. The food choices of people from many countries intrigue us, even as much of our diet intrigues or offends other cultures. A guy arrested in Korea recently who stole from foreigner’s apartments said he could easily find foreigner’s apartments because they smelt like cheese (in this case, he meant both the foreigner and their abode). If you were to ask the average westerner what it is that Koreans eat, I bet that dog meat would come high on their list of answers. And its true, dog meat is something that Koreans, especially males, do eat occasionally. Korea’s reputation of being the land of the nervous dog ignores the fact that dog is commonly eaten throughout much of the world. For example, dogs have been seen as a major source of protein throughout the Pacific, ever since people left Taiwan and started one of humankind’s greatest migrations. No large mammals exist on any of these islands, bar one’s close to Australia, so the dog was valued for its taste and protein value. Its fur and teeth could be used for decoration, clothing and ornaments, its bones for tools and implements. Dogs are still eaten in South East Asia, throughout China where it is eaten during the winter months, as it is believed to generate heat and promote bodily warmth. Dog was even on the menu of Chinese astronauts. In Ghana, it is eaten in a courtship stew provided by a king to his royal lineage. In Germany, it has been eaten commonly in times of turmoil. In Poland, dogs are rendered into lard that is said to be good for the lungs. Parts of Switzerland are known to produce dog jerky and sausage. In Mexico, breeds were developed by the Mexicans to be used as a food source. And so on. Most countries have some history of eating dog, yet South Korea is the country most associated with the eating of dog, the gold standard of canine consumption.

Despite the widespread use of dogs as a source of protein, many of the world’s inhabitants are strongly opposed to eating it. In Islam and Judaism, the consumption of dog meat is forbidden, Some would argue that it is also taboo for Christians, although most Christians are of a belief that the New Testament scriptures supersede the Old Testament and allow consumption of foods like pork and shellfish considered unclean by Jews and Muslims. Regardless, the elevated position of dogs in the West is shown by the fact that we don’t consume dogs, or cats for that matter, (although during the Blitz in London, cats were euphemistically called roof rabbits and commonly eaten). In Keith Thomas’s, Man and the Natural World, three features are mentioned that elevate dogs (and cats) above other animals; they were allowed and indeed encouraged to enter homes and churches, they were given individual personal names, and that there was a strong taboo against their consumption.

Even though dog has and still is commonly eaten around the world, cultural imperialism has led for cries to stop the eating of those animals elevated to a special status in the West (namely cats, dogs and horses). Many Asian countries have banned the consumption of dog meat, including Korea who somehow has managed to acquire and bear the brunt of the dog eating moniker. In 2003, the BBC claimed that around 5,000 restaurants served dog and that around 100,000 tons of dog meat are consumed annually in South Korea.

What's for dinner? Beef or Dog?

 While dog meat is eaten and has been eaten in Korea for millennia, it does not form a major part of the diet. It does have a long tradition, with dog bones found in Neolithic settlements clearly used as food. A wall painting from the 4^th Century AD depicts a slaughtered dog in a storehouse.  It is a summertime dish, (interesting the opposite of China where it is seen as a winter dish) and is most often eaten in the form of bosingtang or dog soup, usually by men looking for a boost in stamina (code for prolonged sexual prowess, one of many alleged aphrodisiacs in Korea).  Alternatively, it can be eaten boiled or consumed in a drink, gaesoju where a dog’s penis is often added for extra ‘stamina’. With the rise in Western medicine, people are starting to doubt the veracity of the aphrodisiac properties attributed to dog meat. Not Kim Sung Il, the former North Korean dictator, who reputedly ate 7 dog penises a day as both a youth elixir and as a way to cope with the harem of young girls he kept.

Dog Soup

While many Koreans have tried dog meat, only a small proportion of Koreans eat it regularly. However, it is an emotive issue, with many disparate views. Some Koreans want it banned outright, others don’t eat it but support the rights of others to enjoy it and some want to actively promote the consumption of dog meat. If prompted, most men and some boys would admit to have sampled Fido. Most women and girls however screw up their nose at the thought of eating dog and a growing number of Koreans are opposed to the practice. 59% of Koreans under 30 said that they would not eat dog, 62% said that they saw dogs as pets first, food second. A possible reason for this is dogs are becoming more popular as pets, especially the lap dogs, perfectly sized pets for Korean apartments. A special breed of dog (nureongi) has been developed for eating in Korea that differs from other pet dogs, including dogs like the esteemed Jindo (designated Korea’s 53^rd national treasure in 1962). To further dissociate these dogs from the pets now commonly kept by Koreans, they are known as ddong-gae, meaning "shit dog", which refers to the common stray dogs' habit of eating feces. These dogs are generally considered by Koreans to be "mutts", "mongrels", or "curs" and are not normally allowed into the home.

A Jindo: National treasure #53

I have never tried dog. I could have a James Frey moment here and embellish a story about how I had a piece of meat in my mouth and didn’t have the strength to follow through with my conviction but that’s just not true. Before I arrived in the country, eating dog was one of the things I had wanted to try. I considered it a cultural rite of passage, shedding part of my colonial baggage in the process. I imagined how my honour would grow in the minds of those Koreans present, a foreigner embracing something that foreigners are supposed to express anger or shock at. I imagined it to be an activity hidden away, where the participation in this culinary delight was only achieved through belonging to clandestine underground groups, only joined through an intense initiation testing my resolve and dedication to the cause before letting me enter the inner chamber. I imagined secret handshakes and passwords were needed to obtain the elixir of canine moonshine. However, these doggie clan meetings unfortunately appeared to be a myth, nothing more than a trailer played out in the cinema of my mind. The truth is less sexy. Koreans are a little hesitant to talk about eating dog with foreigners, no doubt aware that many foreigners are vehemently opposed to the practice. Under pressure from international protests before the Seoul Olympics held in 1988, dog meat was banned and it still has no legal status as a food unlike say beef, poultry or pork. The South Korean government at that time asked butchers to not hang dog carcasses in windows and asked its citizens to limit the eating of dog in front of foreigners, pleas that were reiterated before and during the 2002 Football World cup jointly held in Korea and Japan.

My reasons for not eating dog in the end didn’t have anything to do with them being man’s best friend. I find such thinking to smack of cultural imperialism. After all, we as westerners indulge in eating beef (undesirable for Hindus) and pork (similarly for Muslims and Jews). One of the worst examples of this cultural elitism was during the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by South Korea. The organizers put some pressure on the South Korean government to stop the consumption of dogs with Brigitte Bardot calling for a boycott of the games unless a total ban on dog meat was strictly enforced. Imagine if Indian groups came to America and called for McDonalds to stop using beef in its burgers (Interestingly,  in India, McDonalds doesn’t sell Big Macs, it sells chicken burgers like the Maharaja burger to avoid offending the Hindu majority).

Nor could I use the too cute excuse. I’ve watched Bambi and still enjoy venison. And I couldn’t use the how can you eat a pet reason as coming from the south of New Zealand it was common for kids to have lambs which one week were playmates called Lamb chop and then the next week end up as Christmas dinner. In the end, it came down to two things. The first and most important fact was that I didn’t like how the animals were killed (or might have been killed). The traditional way to kill dogs is to slowly strangle the dog to death while beating it with hammers. This was believed to add more adrenaline to the meat, therefore increasing its all important  stamina quotient. A friend described how she used to admire a dog that lived in her apartment complex but was worried how it never seemed to be walked. She awoke one morning to a terrible noise, which sounded like a child being beaten. She ran downstairs to discover that it wasn’t a child that was being beaten but the dog she had been concerned about. It was strung up in a tree and three old men were beating it with hammers. Being a person of strong conviction, she immediately ran over and managed to delay the dog’s imminent death. Her boyfriend was able to phone the police in the interim who arrived in due time. When they arrived, they spoke to the three dog beaters and seemed to come to some sort of an agreement. They then came over to the couple and explained that while what the old men did was wrong and illegal, in Confucian style they had to defer to their elderly age and ask respectfully that they allow them to continue the beating of the unfortunate mutt albeit in a different place away from a residential complex. Apparently, dogs killed for commercial consumption are not treated in this manner and are killed in a similar manner to sheep in the west, with an electric jot to the head.

On the way to the table.

The second reason and my personal nail in the coffin of canine eating was a conversation I had with my mother-in-law. She had watched a BBC documentary that went undercover at dog farms around Korea. What struck her (and me in her retelling of the documentary) was that while the dog farmers saw the animals as a food commodity, the dogs themselves acted and looked like dogs. They still wagged their tails when approached and were playful towards their farmers. This image of a playful dog wagging its tail shortly before being hang from a tree and beaten was hard to shake. Maybe I couldn’t shake my cultural background after all, no matter how virile it might make me.