Should I Stay or Should I Go...?

Days in Korea: 1 month
Contrary to the title, I am not talking about Seoul or Korea, so don't get worried! I LOVE it here!

I ended up being very sick this past week, a month into my journey. I've nearly run out of loose leaf tea I brought with me from China which drew me to the internet in an attempt to find a market where I could get some more. My attempted research landed me with a traditional market, conveniently located on the subway line I take to school (the Bundang line). The market is technically outside of city limits (on the outskirts of Seoul) but apparently still accessible through the Moran stop on the subway.

As I further looked into the Moran Market, I uncovered something ridiculously disturbing that has left me really, really scarred these last few days. I'm stunned by everything I have seen, read and the statistics I have found. Before I go any further, do a quick 'google images' search of the 'Moran Market', and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. (The power of images is EVERYTHING here!)

I am by no standards a vegetarian. I eat meat, cows, pigs, chickens, the usual things we Westerners consider to be livestock. I'm horrified mostly that the government is able to turn a blind eye to this. I heard of it happening in different rural parts of China, but was stunned to find a city and country so modern, fashionable and sensible committing such a horrific act. Walking down the street where I live in Gangnam, it's much what I  imagine Manhattan is like (I've never been) but at the very least it compares to Beverly Hills because it's so cutting edge. The Moran Market slashes my image of Korea completely, even though I have never been.

At first I thought okay, so it's a cultural thing. Dogs and Cats are reared as livestock just like our modern day chickens and cows that are often treated horrifically and abused until their deaths. But then I did a little more research and learned the true scope of the problem. Over 2 million dogs are killed in Korea annually for human consumption. This is huge!!  It's a problem that exists on a level far greater than I could ever have imagined. I then assumed, okay, it's probably a generational thing, and to an extent it is, until I found further stats showing that 1 in 3 Koreans has consumed Dog meat at some point in their life. I'm still grappling with the fact that they feel like dogs are livestock and I'm still conflicted and can't get past it. Koreans all through where I live love their animals to death, but in the Moran end of town they're simply traded and butchered like anything else. Not being a vegetarian, I'm not going to entirely criticize their choices. I see dogs and cats from the view of any Westerner - that they don't belong on your plate at the dinner table.

The big conflict I have with the whole thing is not simply that they eat them, but that they pretty much terrorize the poor animals as best they can before slaughter. Apparently when they are fearful the adrenaline produced makes the meat that much better, as a lot of men eat it for impotency problems.

So that's the dog's, next comes the cats. Again, the poor things are horrifically abused in these tiny little cages with their dead amigos hanging out beside them. They can hear the screams of the other animals when they're dying. The cats I find a little more traumatizing than the dog's because apparently they just dump them in scalding water and boil them in order to release some tonic they drink that is said to cure rheumatism and arthritis (bull-fucking-shit!)

So here is my real confliction - I half want to go to the market - I need to see that this is really still going on for myself. It's one of those things that I just can't believe until I see it; I'd like to give this society the benefit of the doubt here. After all, the internet isn't the most reliable source out there, the real thing is. Secondly, I half don't want to go, because I feel like deep down I know it's true and my heart just wouldn't be able to deal with seeing anything that terrifying. I'd probably end up buying all the poor things and donating them to a rescue society or something; I simply couldn't just leave them all there to die!
So end point - should I confirm all this? (part of me needs to validate it all) or should I simply mind my own business, be naive and pretend that things like this never go on.

The whole situation has been consuming my thoughts for the past few days since I found out about it. Every time I see a dog, my thoughts go back to this market. The market is only open every five days ending in 4 or 9, so those days have sort of become 'blood numbers' to me now when I see them on the calendar. The thought of it all just sickens me. How can people be so heartless? How can they differentiate between companion dogs and meat dogs? The whole thing is just insane...

- Sarah