A Sight to Make Rover Rollover!

When researching our trip to Busan I came across the following in the Lonely Planet travel guide:

“Gupo Market has a large selection of clothing, pungent Korean food and butcher shops specializing in fowl and dogmeat. Whatever one’s take on the ancient practice of using man’s best friend for human nourishment, images of an eviscerated canine carcass are bound to produce lasting memories.”

Being the type of person that has to see things with my own two eyes before believing them, I set about finding this Gupo market to see what the fuss was all about. When I arrived I wondered about the usual Korean style market, stall after stall jam packed with as many goods as the vendor can possibly fit into their allotted space. As I walked around I noticed that every now and then there were staircases leading down to a level below street level, that in actual fact when you followed it out you ended up back at street level, just in a different section. You must admit though that it sounds much better if I talk about this underground section of the market that you enter at your own risk.

This lower level was certainly the food section and I passed stall after stall of chicken, seafood of all sorts, and every type of Kimchi you could imagine. But still no pooches on parade! That was until I reached the far northern end of the market where I noticed an alley that appeared to have live dogs in cages. As I got closer I recognized the breed of the dog by its appearance as being the one that is most commonly used for gastronomic purposes. All in all there were about 10-15 shops that had 1 or two cages with anywhere from 4 to maybe 15 live dogs in them out the front. What was in the display cases right next to the cages was what I had come to see though.

Now a 190cm westerner with a large camera around his neck tends to stand out in a crowded Korean market – now imagine how much I stood out in this section of the market being the only person there, Korean or western! The word travelled fast and the shop keepers kept a tight vigil ensuring that my hands were not getting too close to the camera. At one stage I even asked if I could take a photo – an emphatic NO was the response. So being photo-less, I will try my best to describe what I saw.

Each shop had a refrigerated, closed in case out the front that was well lit with glass on all sides, and a glass sliding lid on the top. In each case was about 4-6 dogs fully intact, head and all, with their mouths agape and their legs tucked up tight under their body it gave a fair indication of their last terrifying, painful moments. I won’t go into the details of how the dogs are killed, because my information is based solely on here say and rumor, however, seeing the horrified look frozen onto their face leads me to believe that the rumors may actually be very close to the truth. All the dogs were neatly arranged, splayed flat on their backs with their chest cavity cut open to reveal parts of the animal that would normally only ever be seen coming out of a dog that didn’t quite manage to cross the road quickly enough. The open chest cavity was used as another type of display case to proudly show off the intestines. I guess there is no point in wasting anything. This was quite unlike anything I have ever seen before – seeing ducks hanging in the window or a pig carcass hanging from a hook in the butcher shop just doesn’t seem to compare. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against this practice, nor do I think it is any different to eating any other animal – it’s just not something you see every day.

So the question remains – would I eat dogmeat? You betcha! I’ll give anything a go, and when the opportunity presents itself I’ll be in there paws and all – sorry for the bad pun. I don’t think it is any different to eating a cow, or a pig, or a fish, particularly when here they actually breed dogs to be eaten. You may have to think twice before accepting our next dinner invitation, particularly if it says ‘pets welcome’.