Dog meat consumption persists in parts of Asia, often involving significant welfare abuse. Understanding the welfare dimensions and advocacy landscape helps those engaged with this issue.
The dog meat trade involves severe welfare abuse: dogs are often transported in overcrowded wire cages without food or water, and slaughter methods — including beating, hanging, and electrocution — cause extreme suffering. The cultural relativity argument — that dog consumption should not be judged by Western standards — has limits when the welfare harm involved is severe by any standard. However, advocacy on this issue must recognise that the global scale of suffering in pig and chicken farming exceeds that of dog farming by many orders of magnitude, and that campaigns focused on dog welfare to the exclusion of other farmed animals reflect cultural bias. South Korea ban demonstrates that change is achievable through sustained advocacy.