August 18, 2020

"North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has ordered pet dogs to be confiscated in the country’s capital, saying the pooches represent Western 'decadence'..."

"Kim issued the directive in July to round up the pets, claiming they were part of 'a "tainted" trend by bourgeouis [sic] ideology,’' a source told the English edition of Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper. 'Ordinary people raise pigs and livestock on their porches, but high-ranking officials and the wealthy own pet dogs, which stoked some resentment' among the lower classes, the source said. 'Authorities have identified households with pet dogs and are forcing them to give them up or forcefully confiscating them and putting them down.' But while the oppressive regime says the move is to clamp down on capitalist extravagance in Pyongyang, the dog owners are fearful that given North Korea’s food shortage — and propensity for eating dog meat — the directive has only come about to feed the masses."

The NY Post reports.

It does stoke resentment if the wealthy are keeping pet animals, which must be fed, and the masses of people are hungry. If you are going to ban the pets because of this and confiscate them and kill them, what is the ethical argument for not using the meat?

64 comments:

Kevin said...

Progressivism: if you’re not hungry enough to eat your own dog, the government gives it to someone who is.

Kevin said...

John Kasich would not support Kim Jong Un in normal times, but these are not normal times.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Really Professor? Koreans eating dog?

Freder Frederson said...

I think Jonathon Swift addressed that issue way back in 1729.

Larry J said...

Eating dogs is something that happens in many Asian countries. My wife is a Filipina but a naturalized US citizen. Her family had dogs as pets when she was growing up. They also ate them. There was no way they could afford to throw away that much meat. When she hears of Americans spending thousands of dollars on medical care for their pets, she just shakes her head and says, "Americans are crazy." For what it's worth, she tells me that short-haired dog tastes better than long-haired dog but she doesn't know why.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Confiscated is a Korean word that means "tasty". Look it up.

Mr. Penfold said...

This is the making of a great Disney dog movie.

Krumhorn said...

They’ll use the dog meat to feed the inmates in the Hwasong Gulag, which, by the way, will be the model for the Camp 16 the lefties have in store for us.

Anyone who doesn’t see the vital threat to this country the lefties represent is simply willfully blind. There will be a surplus of three-legged dogs roaming the streets along with the BLM and antifa thugs.

- Krumhorn

Lucid-Ideas said...

In their defense, I've had dog several times and it's quite tasty. Regardless of taste, lord knows Norks need the calories.

stevew said...

Dog owners appear to distrust the regime's given reason for confiscating the dogs.

bagoh20 said...

We read about this kind of thing all the time in collectivist nations with central control both past and present, but does it ever happen under capitalism in market driven economies?

bagoh20 said...

"Western decadence" means having enough to eat.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Ethical argument be damned. If you’re down to eating someone’s pet (because you have to, not because your culture digs it) then you’re in serious dystopian survival mode. Or North Korea.

Fernandinande said...

Really Professor? Koreans eating dog?

Teh google of [koreans eat d] doesn't suggest "Doritos".

bagoh20 said...

What kind of decadence does Kim live in. We know it's not "western decadence" because that's shared among the people to whatever degree they wish to pursue. Maybe he lives in "fuck you, I'm the dictator decadence".

Narayanan said...

Larry J said...
When she hears of Americans spending thousands of dollars on medical care for their pets, she just shakes her head and says, "Americans are crazy."
--------------=============
speaking of elective surgery for humans being delayed - what is happening in veterinary clinics?
- asking for wise Filipina?!

how many dogs and cats has my goofriend Trump killed with his pandemic policy?
asking from North Korean

Original Mike said...

Blogger Kevin said..."Progressivism: if you’re not hungry enough to eat your own dog, the government gives it to someone who is."

Perfect.

Bob Boyd said...

If the pet owners are really guilty of indulging in capitalist extravagance while the masses are starving, what is the ethical argument for not using that meat too?

Josephbleau said...

Shall I throw in the obligatory "Obama ate dogs in Indonesia" meme? I was told that in Korean restaurants there was a glass case full of puppies for you to pick from...

Rory said...

2020: Dems take over
2030: One dog limit (crowding, pollution)
2050: No more dogs

Temujin said...

It would be so much easier, not to mention more humane, to just kill off the entire Kim family, relatives, and friends. There are certainly more N. Koreans than there are Kims. They've been down to eating sticks with a side of rocks for generations. There is no good- nothing- that has happened there since forever. The world sits back and just watches. Waits. Waits for what?

North Koreans. No one is going to save you. Time to off the Kims. Virtually any other form of government will be an improvement. We'll send you Al Gore or John Kerry. You pick. Even one of them would be a huge improvement. Possibly. As long as you hold your hands over your ears.

Ann Althouse said...

" Her family had dogs as pets when she was growing up. They also ate them. There was no way they could afford to throw away that much meat..."

Plenty of westerners are like that with rabbits.

Narayanan said...

Ann Althouse said...

Plenty of westerners are like that with rabbits.
---------===========
or any kid in 4-H tending chickens and goats and oh my!

Joe Smith said...

Doggone...

"Plenty of westerners are like that with rabbits."

Plenty of people in the US ate horse meat before WWII. It was common and wasn't considered odd at the time.

Gahrie said...

If you are going to imprison and enslave people, and kill them, what is the ethical argument for not using the meat?

Bob Boyd said...

You can't play fetch with a rabbit...unless you have a dog.

Wince said...

"Ordinary people raise pigs and livestock on their porches..."

Good idea, that way you can push them directly on the Weber grill.

rehajm said...

Plenty of westerners are like that with rabbits.

Pets or meat?

Howard said...

Taco Tuesday

mikee said...

The proles' resentment of Party Cadre isn't the point of the pet confiscations, Anne.
The meat being used to feed people, including most importantly the Party Cadre, is the point.

The Norks are starving, again.

How about we kill Lil' Kim and as many of his family as we can target, this time, and see what happens?

Clyde said...

It's only a hop, skip and a jump from eating dogs to eating people because "the masses are hungry."

Amadeus 48 said...

Has Obama heard about this?

Drago said...

Freder Frederson: "I think Jonathon Swift addressed that issue way back in 1729."

1729?

Are you kidding me?

The philosophy, such as it is, of the left led to the direct implementation of that "solution" just 60 years ago in the wonderful land of marxist leftist commies.

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/05/books/horror-of-a-hidden-chinese-famine.html

But then leftist policies ALWAYS lead to absolute destruction of both body and spirit.

But only always and in every instance.

Unexpectedly.

tcrosse said...

One of the first things a farm kid learns is that the livestock aren't pets.

Well okay then said...

Back in ‘92 a friend and I were visiting Guangzhou. My goal was to find dog meat in a market, dressed, hanging up with the ducks and other unrefrigerated meat. Once found, the plan was to stand outside that butcher shop’s window, dog in the background, and sing, on video (wait for it), “How much is that doggie in the window?” You know the song.

Didn’t happen. The closest we got to finding dog meat was on the menu in a big, popular restaurant. Dog stew, which when currency converted was about $50. We had noodles. Still, good times.

Craig Howard said...

Morality aside, somehow I can’t see North Korea’s collective (no pun intended) dog supply as providing much meat for long.

Matthew Heintz said...

Sweet and Sour Shar Pei, Moo Goo Gai Poodle, Peking Doberman, trouble is they all taste like Shih Tzu.

Openidname said...

The ethical argument for not eating the meat is the same as the argument for not eating the body of a criminal who has been executed.

Birkel said...

Ask Obama.
He has insights.

n.n said...

Planned Pet is more humane.

n.n said...

But then leftist policies ALWAYS lead to absolute destruction of both body and spirit.

Ethics (i.e. relativistic morality), or Pro-Choice quasi-religion, and wicked solutions. That said, Planned Pet is a humane alternative.

mezzrow said...

"meat's meat, and man's got to eat" - Farmer Vincent (Motel Hell, 1980)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motel_Hell

Skeptical Voter said...

There's going to be a sudden increase in dog flavored soup at the Pyongyang soup kitchens.

wildswan said...

The derecho down in Iowa and Illinois in early August means the US will have appreciably less corn. Not that we will be hungry but just that there is less to sell. The Chinese can't buy what we haven't got to sell and they can't give what they haven't bought that we didn't have to sell to the North Koreans.

Narayanan said...

Amadeus 48 said...
Has Obama heard about this?
--------============
why do i say no ? had he known he would have visited NKorea and not let Trump be first to cross over DMZ - of course pity that Trump made it back

Sam L. said...

More food for the peasants?????

ColoradoDude said...

Folks in China are just one catastrophe away from matching N Korea in starving to death in the cold. Xi reminds me, a great deal, of the last Empress of China near the turn of the last century. Both clueless while national dysfunctionality surged.

tommyesq said...

Ann Althouse said...

Plenty of westerners are like that with rabbits.
---------===========
or any kid in 4-H tending chickens and goats and oh my!


I still remember going to the Ohio State Fair in the 90's and seeing teenagers proudly displaying their hand-raised beef cows, then seeing the steaks from the ribbon winners at the grocery store two days later. Heck, the Ohio State Fair Livestock Competition website has "Recipies" as the third link, just below "Competitions" and "How to Enter."

jeremyabrams said...

The ethical lapses are all bound up in the policies that made North Korea so destitute that they are resorting to eating dogs.

Dogs, of course, evolved from wolves by voluntarily becoming dependent on and useful to our species. We are now in symbiosis with canines, and that's why it's immoral to kill them. Focusing on the meat is a great way to miss the point.

TrespassersW said...

OK, which color Soylent is made of dogs?

Not Sure said...

Capitalism is a dog-eat-dog world. Socialism, OTOH...

Birkel said...

Leftists: Food comes from the grocery store.

Rural voters: You're fucking stupid and if you bring those riots out here, you'll be fertilizer or pig slop.

n.n said...

Capitalism is a dog-eat-dog world. Socialism, OTOH...

Both require religious/moral temperance. The latter just seems to often to be closely associated with the the Pro-Choice quasi-religion ("ethics").

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Koreans eat dogs. I thought that was common knowledge.

Danno said...

Blogger Birkel said...Leftists: Food comes from the grocery store. Rural voters: You're fucking stupid and if you bring those riots out here, you'll be fertilizer or pig slop.

Pigs are already considered unclean meat by certain religions. Absolutely nobody would touch them if they were fed progtards.

Danno said...

Fernandinande said ..."Teh google of [koreans eat d] doesn't suggest "Doritos"."

Hopefully its first reply was Democrats. We could supply them with enough Democrats to make their protein shortage go away.

Narr said...

The Taliban back in the 80s had a policy against "short-legged dogs" (i.e. pets, lapdogs, non-working dogs) that was entirely ideological (theological-spiritual).

Narr
I'd rather see dogs eat Kim and his ilk than vice-versa

The Godfather said...

Or, instead of eating their pets, the Norks could off the Kims, open the border, and join the South.

Anonymous said...

Planned Pet is more humane.

Liberals object to eating aborted babies.

But they can't tell us why.

Gahrie said...

If China's Three Gorges dam breaks this year there will be widespread famine in China and North Korea.

Gahrie said...

Is everybody aware of the fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries lobster was fed to prisoners because no one else would eat it and chicken was considered to be a rich man's food?

ken in tx said...

In the Philippines I was told that stolen dogs taste better. The dog I ate was in a stew and very strong tasting sort of like calves liver.

ken in tx said...

In South Korea I was told that dog meat makes 'Strong Penis' and was only for men.

n.n said...

Liberals object to eating aborted babies. But they can't tell us why.

Well, social justice and capital sentences are progressive, and clinical cannibalism (e.g. reduce, reuse, and recycle) of her parts is forward-looking. It's a really weird religion. But, yeah, babies on the barbie are still a social taboo.