EXPLORING ANIMAL RIGHTS VS CULTURAL RIGHTS DEBATE STUDY IN SOUTH KOREA
By: Reygildo
Translator : Raden Destyana
Yunissa Prizka
Culture is a nation’s property. Every country has its own culture with distinct uniqueness. When it comes to culture, we can’t deny that Asian culture has always been tradition-based.
South Korea, is one of Asian trendsetters country in the world. Regarding this, we are brought to consider if a nation’s culture can be influenced by new comprehension, such as animal rights? To find the answer, I will explain about animal rights and cultural rights briefly.
On one side, I believe that human rights is a concept where animal shares the same level of morality status with human.
Hence, they can be free from any sufferings. Any kind of abuse towards animal is equal to human abuse. On the other side, cultural rights is a form of human rights to guarantee cultural enjoyment under equal and non-discriminative conditions.
The different meaning between both concepts can possibly set a nation in high tension. For instance, South Korea went through it during 1988 – 2002 period. South Korea was infamous as Asian country with the highest dog meat consumption at that time.
Image: JAAN Domestic Shelter
The issue became a special concern among western activists, especially during the international event in South Korea.
In 1988, during the summer olympics in Seoul, there was a raging anti-dog meat protest. As a result, South Korea government gave in and put efforts not to offend tourists and westerners.
They banned dog meat trade and organized inspections towards dog meat restaurants. 14 years passed and South Korea happened to be 2002 World Cup co-host, along with Japan. The similar protest emerged, yet the government didn’t budge.
In contrary, Korean public and government officials accused it as western value enforcement act. They emphasized dog meat consumption as their cultural rights.
If we take a look at the 2002 mass protest, South Korea government policy was not enough.
The dog meat consumption numbers between 1988 and 2002 was precisely high.
The firm refusal from outh Koreans general public against western values are based on Korea cultural aspect about dog, as it perceives dog both as food and pet.
Image: JAAN Domestic Shelter
This dispersed views are probably based on dog type. There are consumption dog (Gae-go-gi) which is raised like cattle and pet dog (Gang-a-ji). We can see the way Jindo dog are treated. It is a dog breed from Jindo Island, Korea. It is crowned as a national treasure and protected animal.
From the explanation, it can be concluded that there might be dispute between animal rights and cultural rights. I have also explained about how every human has right to enjoy his culture equally, as seen on South Korea case. South Korean people consider dog meat culinary as their national trEasure and the way they treat dog is cultural nationalism.
SOURCE :
Oh, Minjoo & J. Jackson. (2011). Animal Rights vs Cultural Rights : Exploring the Dog Meat Debate in South Korea From a World Polity Perspective. Journal of Intercultural Studies
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