South Korea’s parliament has handed a invoice banning breeding, slaughtering and selling dogs for his or her meat.
The Nationwide Meeting voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the transfer, which can come into impact after a three-year grace interval and pending remaining approval from President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Breeding, promoting and slaughtering canines for his or her meat can be punishable by as much as three years in jail or 30 million received ($23,000) in fines.
Canine meat has been part of South Korean delicacies for hundreds of years, and at one level as much as one million canines had been believed to be killed for the commerce yearly, however consumption has sharply declined not too long ago, as Koreans embrace pet possession in droves.
Activists have long called the practice an embarrassment for the country.
Consuming canine meat is one thing of a taboo amongst youthful, city South Koreans, and strain to outlaw the commerce from animal rights campaigners has been mounting on the federal government in recent times.
Official help for a ban has grown underneath Yoon, a self-professed animal lover who has adopted a number of stray canines and cats with First Girl Kim Keon Hee – who’s herself a vocal critic of canine meat consumption.
‘Historical past within the making’
Activists welcomed the invoice, calling it “historical past within the making”.
“We reached a tipping level the place most Korean residents reject consuming canines and need to see this struggling consigned to the historical past books, and right this moment our policymakers have acted decisively to make {that a} actuality,” JungAh Chae, government director of Humane Society Worldwide/Korea, stated in a press release.
“Whereas my coronary heart breaks for all of the hundreds of thousands of canines for whom this transformation has come too late, I’m overjoyed that South Korea can now shut this depressing chapter in our historical past and embrace a dog-friendly future,” she added.