SOUTH KOREA – “It’s a dying business,” Gong In-Young said Wednesday as he watched US activists clear out the cages of the South Korean dog meat farm he has been running for the past decade.

Close to 200 dogs, including Golden Retrievers, Siberian Huskies, Rottweilers, Japanese Tosas and Korean Jindo dogs, paced in circles inside the small wire cages, barking furiously at their rescuers.

The dogs in Gong’s farm, one of thousands across the country, were bred specifically for consumption and confined in their cages from birth until slaughtered for their meat.

South Koreans are believed to consume somewhere between 1.5 million-2.5 million dogs every year, but the meat farming industry is in decline, with little demand among the younger generation.

Gong’s business is the fifth and the largest dog meat farm to be closed down by the US-based Humane Society International (HSI), and Gong said he was happy to get out.

“In the past, people ate dogs because there was nothing else to eat but nowadays, young people don’t have to eat it,” Gong said. “It’s becoming weird for people,” he added.

A poll conducted by Gallup Korea last year showed that only 20 percent of men in their 20s consumed dog meat in the past year, compared to half of those in their 50s and 60s.

Gong also noted that the increasing popularity of dogs as domestic pets had played a large part in reducing demand for their meat.

The HSI rescued a total of 225 dogs last year, closing down four farms in what they call a “constructive and collaborative” approach to phase out an industry that has long been criticised by international animal welfare groups.

Most of the dogs are flown to the United States and Canada for adoption.

In return for shuttering his business for good, a farmer receives up to $60,000 – depending on the number of dogs being bred – that can be used as seed money for a more “humane” farm, growing anything from blueberries to green peppers.

Through its well-publicised rescues, HSI seeks to raise awareness about the cruelty of dog meat farms and “initiate a conversation with South Korean policymakers,” the group’s campaign manager Andrew Plumbly said.

South Korea is preparing to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Plumbly said the global publicity surrounding the event provided an opportunity to push for change.

“Part of the spotlight will touch on the dog meat trade so they may feel pressure in that regard and hopefully they will respond constructively,” he said.

The South Korean authorities are sensitive to the negative publicity attached to the dog meat industry, and dog restaurants in Seoul were shut down ahead of the 1988 summer Olympics.

Gong, who stumbled into the dog meat industry after many failed business attempts, admits he was “never proud” of his farm, which only ever earned him a modest living.

In a normal year, he would sell around 200 animals, with an average price – depending on size – of about $200.

“I realised the dogs will become a lot happier if I changed my mind,” Gong said, while Snow, his pet Spitz, sauntered between rows of crates with dogs awaiting their departure.

Running a dog farm in South Korea requires no special licence, although Gong said there were regular government checks to ensure neighbours weren’t being disturbed and dog waste was being properly disposed of.

Asked to compare the living conditions of Snow and the dogs in the cages, Gong admitted: “It’s the difference between heaven and hell.”

MANILA – Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed Wednesday to launch a military assault aimed at “neutralising” Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants who beheaded a Canadian hostage and are holding more than 20 other foreigners.

“Casualties are to be expected. But what has to be of utmost importance is neutralising the criminal activities of the ASG,” Aquino said in a statement, referring to the Abu Sayyaf by a commonly used acronym.

Aquino released the statement after the severed head of Canadian John Ridsdel, kidnapped seven months ago from aboard a yacht, was dumped Monday on a street on Jolo, a remote southern island that is one of the Abu Sayyaf’s main strongholds.

“This murder was meant to terrorise our whole population. The Abu Sayyaf thought they could instill fear in us. Instead, they have galvanised us even further to ensure justice is meted out,” Aquino said.

Italian hostage released by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Star/ANN, AFP

“We have always been open to talks with those who desire peace, but those who commit atrocities can expect the full might of the state.” The Abu Sayyaf militants, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, are holding more than 20 other foreigners captive.

These include another Canadian, a Norwegian man and a Filipina who were abducted at the same time as Ridsdel at a marina near Davao, the biggest city in the southern Philippines and about 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Jolo.

The Abu Sayyaf is also believed to be holding a Dutch bird watcher kidnapped from a southern Philippine island in 2012, as well as 18 Indonesian and Malaysian sailors abducted over the past month.

Aquino said the captives were under the control of Radullan Sahiron, one of the Abu Sayyaf’s founders famous for losing one arm in battle against the military.

He said Sahiron had consolidated his forces around himself and the captives in Sulu, a small Muslim-populated archipelago about 1,000 kilometres from Manila. Jolo is the biggest island in Sulu.

“This presents both a problem and an opportunity. It is a problem because of the sizeable force surrounding Sahiron and the captives, but it is also an opportunity because smashing these forces is within our grasp,” Aquino said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since the 1970s.

It is believed to have just a few hundred militants but has withstood repeated US-backed military offensives against it, surviving by using the mountainous jungle terrain of the southern islands to its advantage.

Although the Abu Sayyaf’s leaders have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, analysts say it is mainly focused on kidnappings for ransom.

Abu Sayyaf gangs have earned many millions of dollars from kidnapping foreigners and locals since the early 1990s.

SEOUL – North Korea is preparing to blow apart a replica of South Korea’s presidential Blue House on an artillery range outside Pyongyang, in an apparent propaganda exercise, the South’s military said Wednesday.

An official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said the North’s military had been detected building the half-sized replica at the Daiwonri range near the capital earlier this month.

“The North is apparently preparing to showcase a mock attack on the Blue House using the replica as a target,” the official said.

Around 30 artillery pieces, hidden under coverings, have been brought to the range.

“The exercise is believed to be aimed at stirring up hostility against the South, summoning up loyalty (to leader Kim Jong-Un) and fuelling security concerns in the South,” the official said.

North Korea is currently stoking nationalist sentiment as it gears up for a landmark ruling party congress – the first of its kind for nearly 40 years.

The key gathering will open on May 6 and there is growing concern that it may be preceded by a fresh nuclear test.

Tensions have been running high on the divided Korean peninsula since the North’s last nuclear test in January, and Pyongyang has issued repeated threats of a direct attack on the Blue House, which houses President Park Geun-Hye’s offices and residence.

In early April, an official North Korean website released a propaganda video portraying multiple rocket attacks on the Blue House and other government buildings in Seoul.