(REUTERS) the article: Protesters from the Korea Association for Animal Protection participate in a demonstration near the Seoul city hall March 25, 2008. The protest was held to oppose the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which will propose to the central government that dogs be categorised as livestock such as beef and chicken to regulate the business of dog meat and strengthen public sanitation inspections, according to local media. The dog collars read,”My name is Choonja. Please don’t eat Choonja” (R) and “My name is Hosoo. I’m your friend”. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won (SOUTH KOREA)

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Protesters argue that we must not eat dogs and passing the bill is to authorize that people do it. And they think that it’s disgusting as dogs are people’s close friends. I disagree with protesters’ opinion. And I think the central government must pass a bill that dogs should be categorized as livestock such as beef and chicken as soon as possible.

In the first place, dog meat is one of Korean traditional foods. There are so many cooks over the world. If we go to France, we can eat horse beef and snail foods. But we don’t usually eat them in Korea. Even though we don’t eat them, we must not think that they are strange or disgusting because the food culture is shaped depending on the area’s environment. As you know, people who are living in India don’t eat beef because of the religious spirit. However, people throughout the world usually eat beef. That is, each country has distinctive culture from others. Therefore, what protesters argue is as much as they don’t understand cultural relativism.

Second, I disagree with their opinion that we must not eat dogs because they are our best friends. Imagine that there is one guy who has affection for pigs as he has brought up them as a pet since he was young. One day, he decided to make a group for people who love pigs like him in the Internet. Whenever meeting each other, they usually talk about how much they have affection for pigs. Finally, after discussing about why people eat pigs, they go to the place in front of the government building to protest that the government should ban people from eating pigs because they think pigs are lovely and our best friends. What will you say about it? You will probably say “they must be crazy.” 

Finally, whether there is law related to dog meat or not, people will go to the restaurant for dog meat as usual. Imagine that there is a man who breeds dogs for supplying to the restaurant on his dirty ranch. One day, many people who eat dog meat in the restaurants that buy dogs which grow up on his dirty ranch are poisoned by food. The government concludes that the problem of the incident is related to the nasty ranch. However, the government can’t inflict any punishment on the owner of the ranch because there is no law related to dog meat. Therefore, the central government has to pass the bill related to dog meet in order to strengthen public sanitation inspections, not minding the protest against the bill.