CommentsANIMAL RIGHTS-On June 5, a resolution was introduced in the Los Angeles City Council, asking the governments of China, Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia, and Indonesia to ban the sale of dog meat and to enforce their animal cruelty laws
The resolution was introduced by Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, a very strong advocate for animal welfare, and seconded by Councilmember David Ryu, one of the most influential Korean American office holders in the country.
The City Council resolution can be seen here.
As stated in the resolution:
“[I]t is estimated that 10 to 20 million dogs in China, 5 million dogs in Vietnam, and one million dogs each in South Korea. Indonesia, and Cambodia are killed for food each year; …
“[D]ogs in these countries are kept in cramped, rusty cages stacked on top of each other, and slaughtered in brutal ways such as hanging or electrocution, due to an erroneous belief that high adrenaline levels will produce tender meat and increase the supposed health benefits of consuming dog.”
This pending City Council resolution grew out of a resolution passed by the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils (VANC), which consists of representatives of all 34 Neighborhood Councils in the San Fernando Valley.
The VANC resolution can be seen here.
The VANC resolution has additional information regarding the dog meat trade, including links to videos showing what happens to these poor dogs. (See addendum below for more information regarding the VANC Resolution. Warning: The videos are very graphic and disturbing.) The VANC resolution is focused on the South Korean dog meat trade because I think South Korea, which is a close friend and ally of the United States, will be most receptive to our pleas to save these dogs.
South Korea has very close ties to Los Angeles – there is a tremendous amount of trade and tourism between Los Angeles and South Korea; we have a sister city, Busan, and even a sister river, the Cheonggyecheon; and South Korea is a democracy that will listen to its citizens who are animal rights advocates. And we have Councilmember Ryu supporting this. In fact, South Korea's National Assembly (legislature) is currently considering this matter. South Korea can be the leader in abolishing the dog meat trade in Asia. As stated in the VANC Resolution:
“The United States is spending billions of dollars, and our military personnel are putting their lives on the line, to assist our ally South Korea in deterring invasion or nuclear attack from the North. Tens of thousands of Americans died in the Korean War, and tens of thousands were wounded, protecting South Korea. Dogs serve in our armed forces and alongside our First Responders. Dogs are instrumental in working with returning Veterans with PTSD. We respectfully request that our ally South Korea stop killing and torturing dogs, a practice which is abhorrent to the vast majority of Americans.”
Please see VANC Letters and Resolution here.
Thank you to VANC Chair and Founder Jill Banks Barad, the entire Executive Board of VANC, and VANC representatives for their strong support of this resolution. The resolution passed almost unanimously, with only one negative vote and one abstention.
What can we do now to help stop the dog meat trade?
- This is the easiest and least time-consuming thing to do now to help stop the dog meat trade: Submit comments in support of the City Council Resolution. The easiest way to do this is by going to this website.
The website contains a form which allows you to type your comments to the City Council, which are then posted in the City Council File. The Council File number for this resolution is 19-0002-S101; make sure you include the Council File number when you fill out the on-line form.
Let the City Council know that you support the resolution asking the governments of China, Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia, and Indonesia to ban the sale of dog meat and to enforce their animal cruelty laws. Submitting a comment on this website is the easiest way to convey your support of this resolution to all City Council Members; it will literally take less than five minutes. A day or two after you submit your comment, you will be able to see it here in the upper right corner.
- Call City Councilmembers in support of the City Council Resolution, CF 19-0002-S101.
- Write letters to City Councilmembers in support of the City Council Resolution, CF 19-0002-S101. Contact information for City Councilmembers is here.
- Send letters to the consulates of China, Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia, and Indonesia asking them to stop the dog meat trade and enforce animal welfare laws. In your letter, note that the Los Angeles City Council is considering a resolution regarding the dog meat trade and the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils has already passed such a resolution. Attach copies of the resolutions. Addresses of the consulates are:
Honorable Consul General of the Republic of Korea
Korean Consulate in Los Angeles
3243 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(If you only have time to send one letter, please send it to South Korea (Republic of Korea), since they are the most likely to listen to us, as discussed above. But if you have time, please send the letter to all 5 consulates. Include copies of the City Council and VANC Resolutions in your letters.)
Honorable Consul General of the People’s Republic of China
Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles
443 Shatto Place
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Honorable Consul General of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco
1700 California Street, Suite 430
San Francisco, CA 94109
Honorable Ambassador of Cambodia
Royal Embassy of Cambodia
4530 16th Street N.W.
Washington D.C. 20011
Honorable Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia
Indonesian Consulate in Los Angeles
3457 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010
- If you are a Neighborhood Council Board Member, please introduce a resolution for your neighborhood council to file a Community Impact Statement (CIS) in support of Council File 19-0002-S101. Or any stakeholder can ask their neighborhood council to pass a resolution for a CIS in support.
Animal activists in South Korea have been organizing against the dog meat trade for several years and have succeeded in getting this issue before the South Korean National Assembly (legislature). I’m sure they would very much appreciate our support, expressed through their Consulate, our City Council, and our Neighborhood Councils.
If you have limited time, please submit a comment on the City Council website, as set forth in paragraph 1 above; that will only take five minutes.
Thank you on behalf of the millions of dogs who are tortured, killed, and eaten each year in these countries. Thank you to Councilmembers Blumenfield and Ryu for introducing this resolution. Thank you to John Popoch, CM Blumenfield’s Deputy Chief of Staff, and the entire Blumenfield Team, for your work on this resolution! Thank you to all the animal activists who have been working to abolish the dog meat trade for years!
Please forward this article to other people you know who care about dogs. This is taking place far away, but the number of dogs who are subjected to the dog meat trade, and the severe torture that they are subjected to, makes this so important to us here in Los Angeles. (For those of you who have been working on the LA City budget, note that this will not cost the City anything but can help save millions of dogs from terrible torture and death.)
Please keep pushing on this, and let’s get the dog meat trade abolished!
Addendum:
According to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and other sources, approximately one to two million dogs are killed for food every year in South Korea. Prior to their deaths, these dogs endure a lifetime of abuse and are often slaughtered in a completely inhumane and brutal manner. As stated by AWI: “From birth to slaughter, these dogs are kept in cramped, rusty cages stacked on top of each other. The method of slaughter is usually extremely (and even intentionally) brutal, and the dogs are often butchered in full view of the others.”
“Most horrifically—due to a traditional belief that high adrenaline levels will produce tender meat and increase the supposed health benefits—dogs who are killed may be intentionally subjected to extreme fear and suffering and be killed via bludgeoning, hanging, or electrocution. At the open-air markets, dogs are often electrocuted and their necks are broken—all in plain sight to passers-by and the other dogs.”
Please see https://awionline.org/dogmeat (Animal Welfare Institute)
Some videos of the dog meat trade in China, Vietnam, and South Korea (in increasing order of how graphic they are) are as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDx7_DdRiE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJnp87OSn58
https://fightdogmeat.com/videos-south-korea-graphic/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMAbbFUiUTo (Lisa Vanderpump and Dr. John Sessa, who have been fighting against the dog meat trade for years)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjbWQAASPcs (ABC News in China)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLlzdY33tZc (Marc Ching, who has been fighting against the dog meat trade for years/LA Weekly)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C406IVEPqF4&list=PLmrSN5nuJgSKE1RQzC2sjFKwgguCMDnFF (Last Chance for Animals and South Korean Animal Liberation Wave)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMQf1nizSk (Vietnamese Dog Slaughterhouse)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-Zo15BJFU (Chinese Dog Slaughterhouse, Requires YouTube age verification to view)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZVQjgGb4RQ&has_verified=1 (South Korean Dog Meat Industry Part 1 of 2 – Requires YouTube age verification to view)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHffcM5B6w (South Korean Dog Meat Industry Part 2 of 2 – Requires YouTube age verification to view)
(Jeffrey Mausner (see https://mausnerlaw.com/ ) is the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils Liaison to the Los Angeles Animal Services Department, a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate, 2nd Vice President of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council and Chair of its Animal Welfare Committee, and a Volunteer at the West Valley Animal Shelter. He is a retired attorney and law school professor and was formerly a Federal Prosecutor for the U.S. Justice Department.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
