These are the images South Korean Olympics organizers do not want you to see – dogs being slaughtered and sold for food just 70 miles from where the Games begin on Friday.
Dogs and even puppies are sold openly for food in Moran market, Seongnam, the country’s largest open-air dog market – contradicting claims made last year by local authorities that it was closing.
Up to 80,000 dogs are sold and slaughtered at the market each year, to be made into a soup which folklore claims boosts the eater’s sex drive.
Acutely aware of the worldwide reaction to eating dog meat, Korean authorities have urged citizens not to consume the animals during the Olympics – but DailyMail.com’s pictures show their request is futile.
Dogs and even puppies are sold openly for food in Moran market, Seongnam, the country’s largest open-air dog market, near Seoul, which has survived an animal rights campaign to shut it before the Winter Olympics – and claims by the local authorities to have closed it
Up to 80,000 dogs are sold and slaughtered at the market a each year, to be made into a soup which folklore claims boosts the eater’s sex drive. Even puppies are sold at the market. One trader said: ‘The dogs are for pets or for the kitchen, it’s up to you. After you buy a dog you can do with it what you like.’
Butchered: This dog’s fur was burnt off and its head removed but its paws are still attached while a potential customer views the dog’s carcass
Graphic: Outside the cages, whole, halved and quartered carcasses fill the tables of meat stalls at the market. The authorities’ claim to have ended the trade last year is exposed as a sham by these photographs
Waiting for their fate: Smaller dogs are sold outdoors in freezing conditions and while the seller has a brazier to keep her warm, the dogs huddle together in the cold
Ultimate fate: Hacked into chunks the dark-gray meat bubbles with green vegetables in a heavily spiced broth and served with rice, fermented kimchi vegetables, sliced onion, sesame oil and three types of chili
Secrecy: Signs banning photography have been put up in the market in an attempt to keep the trade under wraps
Concealed: DailyMail.com photographed the dogs caged in the freezing cold, kept under tarps to prevent the horrific trade being exposed
Innocent appearance: Parts of the Moran market sell other meats but the dog meat trade is a key part of its activity.
The Moran market in Seongnam, the country’s largest open-air dog market, is just outside of Seoul. The market is only 70 miles away from where the Games will begin on Friday
The trade is a legal gray area, officially frowned upon but tolerated due to huge public demand. One in three Koreans have eaten dog meat at least once, although just one in 20 are regular diners.
DailyMail.com witnessed these frightened animals taking their last breaths as they wait for the butcher’s knife in Seongnam.
Our photographs contradict claims that the market would be closed in May 2017, made by Seongnam City Government and the market vendors’ association to the Korea Herald.
‘Starting off with the removal of slaughtering facilities and cages in the market, we will ultimately stop the dog meat trade in Moran Market,’ Seongnam city official Kang Won-gu told the paper.
But that is clearly untrue. In fact our photographs show around two dozen caged dogs in a freezing, darkened dungeon, twitching at the slightest noise, their nostrils full of the stench of slaughter.
Hungry and thirsty, the dogs spend their final hours just yards from restaurants that will chop up their carcasses and serve them up.
Open wounds on their sleek brown fur from fighting betray the dogs’ stress, and blood is splattered across the concrete floor.
Outside their cages, whole, halved and quartered carcasses fill the tables of meat stalls, their fur burnt off but their paws still attached. Cauldrons of boiling dog meat steam away in a shop front.
Restaurants serve up bosintang, the dog flesh-rich soup, that many Koreans believe boosts the diner’s sex drive, for 8,000 South Korean won, less than $7.50 or £5.20.
Hacked into chunks, the dark-gray meat bubbles with green vegetables in a heavily spiced broth and served with rice, fermented kimchi vegetables, sliced onion, sesame oil and three types of chili.
Uncertain fate: Puppies are sold for as little as $9.20 or £6.50. The sellers acknowledge that they could become food – despite claims the market in dog meat was being shut down
Slaughterhouse: This is the exterior of the building which is actually the abattoir for dogs.
Bustling: DailyMail.com witnessed the busy market where dog is on the menu. Animal rights activists have previously tried to close it and authorities claimed they had – but the trade goes on
Cooking venue: These cauldrons are cooking the traditional Korean dish in which dogs are served in a hot red broth
For sale: These two-month old puppies are openly on sale but whether they will be eaten or become pets is up to the buyers
The images show around two dozen caged dogs in a freezing, darkened dungeon, twitching at the slightest noise, their nostrils full of the stench of slaughter
The carcass of a large adult dog sells for up to 200,000 South Korean won, $180 or £130, and about $18.00 per pound or £6.50 per kg – making the dog meat trade highly profitable.
In contrast to the claim of the market being closed, it appears simply to have been moved from public display, with ‘no photography’ signs to discourage witnesses documenting the slaughter.
In freezing conditions, DailyMail.com found some 25 dogs inside a ramshackle corrugated iron shack.
A sign on the metal door threatens trespassers with prosecution for taking photographs inside the property. A CCTV camera records everyone entering the make-shift kennel-cum-slaughterhouse.
The eyes of three light brown mongrels lit up when the unlocked door swung open.
Lying on a freezing metal floor, the dogs looked so similar that they may well have been from the same litter. They were huddled together for warmth and licking a frozen puddle at the bottom of an empty water bowl for sustenance.
Others prowled around the filthy cages, whimpering and snapping at each other in fear and frustration.
The majority appeared to be fully grown young dogs, although one pointed-eared old timer appeared to be ending his days in the most brutal fashion.
Blood splatter marks and the thick smell of recently cut meat revealed that one member of the pack had recently been butchered – its fur burnt off with a blow torch, guts spilled out into a plastic bucket, and head cut off with a cleaver before its body was sliced in two.
Ripped from their mothers while barely weened these bundles of soft fur are sold for just $9.20 or £6.50 out of metal crates and cardboard boxes. Crying kittens are tied together by the neck with rough twine
Mainly intended as pets, the traders openly declare that the puppies can also be eaten. One trader said: ‘The dogs are for pets or for the kitchen, it’s up to you. After you buy a dog you can do with it what you like’
Hungry and thirsty, the dogs spend their final hours just yards from restaurants that will chop up their carcasses and serve them up
Projected image: This is what Olympics bosses want people to see of their country – a happy and smiling South Korea, and not one where dogs are sold and eaten
Getting ready: The games will begin formally on Friday with the opening ceremony, which will attract world leaders including Vice President Mike Pence
One animal that’s safe: One of the official mascots of the Winter Olympics is white tiger Soohorang. The species is traditionally Korea’s guardian animal
Cuddly animals: The mascot of the games are Soohorang, a white tiger, and Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear. The South Korean government as tried to discourage eating dog but DailyMail.com showed that the trade remains large
Animal lovers: The disclosure that dog meat is still being sold in China is certain to upset many athletes, along them skiers Lindsey Vonn (left) and Resi Stiegler (right), who showed off Vonns’ dog Lucy when DailyMail.com caught up with them in Switzerland last month
Loaded into a wheelbarrow the dog carcass is carried to one of a handful of market stalls and butcher shops that boast they sell dog and cat meat, as well as duck, chicken, pork and goat.
Next to one stall three middle-aged women share the ancient recipe for the dog-meat rich bosintang soup, the most popular canine dish in Korea.
‘It’s just like making any meat soup,’ the curly-haired woman in her 50s told DailyMail.com.
‘I can’t tell you about how to slaughter the animal because it’s not really allowed, it’s tolerated.
‘But once you have the meat you cook it with vegetables and spices in a rich broth and serve it piping hot. It’s very popular.’
Back in the market butchers reacted angrily when questioned about the dog meat trade.
‘Go away, you can’t come in here,’ one old woman, with a dog carcass cut into quarters in her street-side display, said to DailyMail.com.
Another butcher added: ‘No pictures, no pictures!’
At the other side of market two-month-old puppies fare little better.
Ripped from their mothers while barely weened these bundles of soft fur are sold for just $9.20 or £6.50 out of metal crates and cardboard boxes. Crying kittens are tied together by the neck with rough twine.
Mainly intended as pets the traders openly declare that the puppies can also be eaten.
One trader said: ‘The dogs are for pets or for the kitchen, it’s up to you. After you buy a dog you can do with it what you like.’