Are Dogs Our Friends? If So, What About their Meat?

Recently, there has been a growing controversy in South Korea over the consumption of dog meat. Unlike in the past, dogs are considered family members in many households, which is the reason why laws against dog meat were enacted. However, as you can imagine from the controversy, there is not a consensus on the issue of eating dog meat. Especially the argument that dogs are friends and family, which is often used by anti-dog meat advocates, is particularly controversial. In this article, I dispute the claim that dogs cannot be friends or family. However, I do not believe that the fact that a dog is a friend or family member at home is a reason to oppose dog meat, because the dogs eaten by dog meat eaters are not family members or friends at home, but non-domesticated dogs. Still, there is room to argue that we shouldn't eat dogs, and I'll make that argument later in this article.