Online dog meat retailer closes site

The online shop (www.e-bosin.com) has been under fire from critics, including animal rights activists, since local media reports about it Tuesday.

“We’re too exhausted by the controversy to speak. We no longer run the website. We erased all photos,” Jo Chang-geun said.

He operated the site along with Ko Se-hoon, who sells dog meat in the city of Seongnam south of Seoul.

Online messages to the Seongnam city government’s Web site pressed officials to stop the online sale of dog meat. The business, which opened in April, had featured photos as well as recipes.

dog meat is a divisive issue in South Korea.

Proponents say it is a traditional cuisine and no different morally from consuming beef or pork. Opponents say eating dog meat is an animal rights issue and harms the nation’s reputation.

Keum Seon-ran, chief of the Korea Animal Protection Society, told Chosun Ilbo newspaper: “According to food sanitation law, dogs and cats are not among the animals that can be cooked. The sale of dog meat is illegal.”

But officials in the health and agriculture ministries gave no clear-cut answer to the question of whether dog meat sales are illegal.

“To be honest with you, the country has no rule directly regulating dog meat,” one health ministry official said while asking for anonymity.

Food safety regulations require all livestock to be examined before sale, but dogs are not defined as livestock.

An animal rights protection law bans the brutal killing of dogs or other animals for food but does not directly ban dog meat.

Dog soup, or boshintang, is a Korean delicacy usually served over the summer season.

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