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Basically, we buy pet dogs from their owners. People who are tired of caring for their pet dogs decide to make some money by selling them to a dog trader or butcher.
Investigators return to the pet-dog auction market.
One year after being exposed on TV, has the pet-dog trade ended?
From outside the market, it was possible to see various breeds of pet dogs being delivered.
Inside the market, pet dogs were visible in the cage in the corner. Lots of large meat dogs were also being auctioned.
Here we see an auction for meat dogs in progress.
Dog auction worker: Yellow dog, yellow dog! 50,000 won, 60,000 won, 70,000 won. No other bids? OK! Sold for 70,000 won!
After being sold, dogs are violently and inhumanely treated.
The rough handling makes it obvious that these dogs are not being bought as pets.
After the original expose was aired, dog traders became very suspicious of apparent “outsiders.”
Dog auction worker: What are you doing here? Undercover team: We're just looking.
Dog auction worker: Yeah? Looking at what? What's in that bag? Undercover team: Why do you want to see my bag?
Dog auction worker: Let me look in your bag. You look suspicious. You don't seem to be here on business, so we can look in your bag.
After the altercation, the undercover team left and filmed the market from a distance.
A man is seen loading many pet dogs and meat dogs into his truck. The team decided to follow him.
After a long drive, they arrive at a dog meat farm and go inside to investigate.
There were a lot pet dogs around. Could they be actually breeding pet dogs for meat?
Undercover team: Do people eat these pet dogs too? Dog farmer: No. These are pet dogs. They’re not supplied to dog-meat restaurants.
But they can be sold to make dog liquor ("Dog Soju"). To make this, dogs are boiled for many hours until a think liquid forms.
So it appears that pet dogs are made into dog liquor as well as meat.
To see how widespread this is, the team decided to visit other dog farms and inquire about it.
Even at this dog farm, which breeds standard meat dogs, there are pet dogs.
It is possible to see common pet breeds, such as the Maltese, Schnauzer and Yorkshire Terrier.
Undercover team: What is that dog over there? Dog farmer: That one is a Maltese and over there is a Schnauzer.
Pet breeds such as Beagles are often sold as meat dogs. They are quite big, so when slaughtered you can’t tell they were a pet breed.
The undercover team visit another farm.
Again, at this farm, it was possible to see pet dogs. Large meat dogs and pet dogs were in cages side by side.
Even though pet dogs could be seen, the dog farmer denied having pet breeds at the farm.
Dog farmer: We don't have pet dogs. They are all for meat.
We don’t deal in pets. If we did, we’d be walking on thin ice. All the dogs here are for meat.
Even if pet dogs are present, farmers will blatantly deny raising pet dogs for meat.
But one dog farmer was more forthcoming. Here he is in the middle of slaughtering a pet dog.
Dog farmer: Taste is very important when dealing in dog meat. Yellow dogs are not always the best for quality, despite what people think.
The slaughtering of pet breeds for meat is not the only dirty secret in Korea’s dog meat trade.
There is also the cruel handling. Dogs are thrown into the metal cages like rags and crammed together.
And there are the unsanitary conditions. Meat dogs are given rotten restaurant waste in dirty cages. They are exposed to all kinds of disease causing germs.
What happens with sick dogs? One dog farmer revealed the shocking facts.
Dog farmer: I can pick up dogs with skin ailments for a bargain price from dog farms.
Dogs that would otherwise go for about 45,000 won can be bought for only 2,000 won if they have skin problems.
People might think it's disgusting, but for us, it's an easy fix. We can burn the skin off with a blowtorch. Problem solved.
Undercover team: But don’t people ask why the skin is so black in certain parts?
Dog farmer: That happens with diseased skin but you can take it off. No one knows the dog had skin disease. You can’t see any sign of it.
With some effort, the undercover team found a dog farm that supplies diseased dogs to dog meat restaurants.
This poor dog had scabies and its fur was gone in many places. The condition of this dog was extremely desperate.
Undercover team: Do you have a problem selling a dog like this for meat?
Dog farmer: Well, this dog isn't so fat and the quality of meat will be good. Once you blowtorch it you can't see the skin problem.
While explaining that no one is ever caught for selling sick dogs, the farmer injects something into the dog. After 5 minutes, the dog starts to shake all over and then collapses.
The dog farmer immediately begins the butchering process. First he burns the skin off to remove fur and hide the skin disease.
Undercover team: Who would take a dog that’s had disease like this?
Dog farmer: Oh, dogs like this go to many difference places, even to health food places selling dog liquor. I also supply restaurants. After burning off the skin, it just looks like a normal dog.
When it's burned off, you can cut the dog into pieces and even if skin is attached it's harder to see if there was any disease.
It's shocking that these dogs are sold to restaurants and health food places just like any other meat dog.
What is even more shocking is it’s not just individual dogs with disease that are sold as meat. If a group of dogs die from a contagious disease, they are also processed for meat.
Dog farmer: If a bunch of dogs die from disease, we store them in freezer.
Undercover team: Is there hazards of eating them? Dog farmer: No. As long as they haven’t been medicated, there is no risk.
Dog farmer: Dogs that die from illness are always frozen. Then, if a customer orders dog for the next day, we soak a carcass in water the night before to thaw it out.
The difference is that these dogs are processed and frozen while others are just slaughtered. This is a common practice in the dog meat industry.
Undercover team: So, people who eat dog meat as health food could be eating former pets or dogs that died of diseases!
Experts warn that eating dog meat can be hazardous to health.
Doctor Oh: These dogs are not fed a diet appropriate for dogs. They ingest poisonous substances which are passed on to humans.
And when these chemicals accumulate in the human body, they can cause serious health problems.
Dog meat contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella is not safe even when you boil or steam it. The bacteria can survive.
Currently there is no law regulating the dog meat industry, so the majority of dog slaughterhouses are unsanitary.
The unsanitary conditions are a disgrace. Flies are swarming around this dead dog lying on a dirty work table.
On the wall, you can see splattered stains of blood and body fluids from the slaughtering process.
Dog slaughterers don’t wear proper sanitary uniforms and the dogs are often processed on filthy cement floors.
Nothing is regulated in the dog meat industry, none of the breeding, farming, slaughtering, or distribution.
What does the Korean Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have to say about this?
Ministry spokesperson: We tried to pass a proposal to categorize dogs as livestock so that their slaughter can be regulated under the livestock sanitation law
But there was strong opposition from both sides of Congress and the general public. No one could agree.
Because of so many complications, this problem isn’t being resolved.
Undercover team: It's been a year since we first reported on the pet dog meat trade.
What we found is that since then, the dog meat industry has become more secretive.
Nonetheless, we discovered that former pets are still ending up as dog meat, as are all kinds of dogs with diseases.
The dog meat industry is unethical and the government is shamefully indifferent. Meanwhile, consumers eat dangerous "health food."
MC: Since our last broadcast, we were told that the pet-dog meat trade had declined.
However, upon investigation, we saw that pet dogs were still being slaughtered for meat just like before.
We also found that the dogs with terminal illnesses and skin ailments, were being sold cheaply to slaughterers.
Under these conditions, eating dog meat can be quite unhealthy.
So the debate on whether to categorize dogs as pets or livestock continues without an answer.
But we cannot simply wait for the society to agree on what to do.
Pet dogs and sick dogs are being sold for meat, and dogs are being slaughtered in unsanitary conditions. The government really must come up with a solution to this issue soon.