Dogburgers will be on the menu for fans during the World Cup in South Korea as lovers of the controversial cuisine attempt to counter what they consider unfair prejudice against dog meat.
Dog meat campaigners will also show off cosmetics using fat from dog meat which they say is good for the skin.
”The more we try to hide it from foreigners, the more they will bark and maul us,” Professor Ann Yong-Geun a food scientist at Chungchong University and a leading dog meat advocate told AFP on Thursday.
The South Korean tradition of eating dog meat has come in for renewed international attention because of the World Cup, to be held in South Korea and Japan from May 31.
French actress turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot has been particularly vocal in her condemnation of Koreans.
”I hope this event will help correct prejudice against dog meat and legalise the consumption of it,” Ann told AFP.
Products to be on display during the tournament will include Korean and western dishes. Among them will be kimchi, Korea’s national dish of spicy, fermented vegetable. But Ann’s kimchi will be fermented by digestive enzyme from dogs.
Also on the menu are dogburgers, dog meat balls, canned dog meat, soup and even dog flavoured bread, mayonnaise and ketchup.
Cosmetics including skin care cream containing dog fat will also be on display. Dog fat contains three times as much calcium as other kinds of fat and is easier to apply to human skin, the professor said.
Dog meat restaurant owners have said they will invite foreign visitors to try specially prepared dog meat juice outside World Cup stadiums on match days.
Dog restaurants were told to close or move into the backstreets when Seoul hosted the 1988 Olympics but no similar move is planned for the World Cup.
The authorities have said foreign activists should not interfere in Korean traditions and that the practice is slowly disappearing in Korea anyway.
But about one million dogs are sold every year for food in South Korea and an estimated 92% of men aged 20 and above and 68% of adult women have tasted dog meat, a recent survey showed. – Sapa-AFP