North Korea Is Confiscating Pet Dogs. And Then Turning Them Into Food

Keeping pets in North Korea is considered a luxury. Why would anyone keep feeding animals when the rest of your comrades are starving, right? 

That is why in July, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un ordered a ban on all pets, calling it a “tainted trend by bourgeois ideology,” according to a report published by South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. 

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A source told Chosun there is rising discontent among the local population, brought about by shortage in the food supply. Apparently, things have gotten much worse in the highly impoverished country as the pandemic spread in the rogue nation. 

“Ordinary people raise pigs and livestock on their porches, but high-ranking officials and the wealthy own pet dogs,” reported Chosun. 

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Dogs Were Sent to Meat Restaurants

Dog meat is not an unusual food in North Korea, but the ongoing pandemic has made it an even more viable food source. Rich pet owners in Pyongyang were among the first who were targeted in the clampdown. 

Some pets that were confiscated were sent to the Korea Central Zoo in Pyongyang, but others were not so lucky as they were sent to meat restaurants to offset the food shortage in the capital. 

North Korea has never been a champion of human rights, so you can understand how animal rights fare on its agenda.

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