Football World Cup Dogmeat Campaign
Fifa (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) has called on the Korean government to ban the consumption of dog meat during the 2002 World Cup in Korea. The consumption of dog meat has a long tradition in Korea, but is rare. Horse and rabbit meat, such as in Switzerland, is not eaten in Korea. Kim Daewoo went on the offensive, opened fictitious tasting stands near football stadiums and had a dog meat cookery book written so that the West would also understand what a fine delicacy dog meat is. He opened a branch of his dog meat butcher’s shop in Zurich, among other places, where Fifa also has its headquarters.
The Dogmeat.org project attempts to test user reactions and break down prejudices by means of media reports, forums, e-mail contacts and a poster campaign. The website (www.dogmeat.org Version 1) in three language versions (Korean, English and German) with the design of a Korean dog meat sales company serves as the starting point for the campaign.
Seoul is stated as the headquarters of the dog meat sales organisation, with branches in Zurich, London and Toronto. It offers online sales of dog meat for 46 dog breeds and direct sales on site with directions and maps. It also lists the drop-off points for dogs that can no longer find a place in the animal shelter. The website also contains texts on the history of dog meat eating, a forum for dog meat recipes and a forum for user opinions and suggestions for improvement. It contains a lot of prejudices and post-colonialist attitudes. E.g. the forum entry by Giusi and her answers: Frisst euch doch gegenseitig ‘ Sch.. Koreaner” (Eat each other’s ‘ shit Koreans)
The Dogmeat.org project was a success
Despite millions of websites, Dogmeat.org has managed to attract a great deal of attention and appeal to a broad public.
Dogmeat.org was the subject of over thirty print and press articles. There were seven requests for radio interviews. Three radio interviews were broadcast Marc Lee talks with SBS Australia. Within one year, 544167 page hits were achieved by users from 106 different countries. In addition, 190 e-mails, 840 forum entries and 257 meat orders were received.
Legal objections
Fifa, Swiss Animal Protection and several private individuals tried unsuccessfully to take the site offline. The letter from the Vice-Rector of the HGKZ, Prof. Dr iur. Mischa Charles Senn, helped to prevent this. Celebrity chef Oliver Jamie’s lawyer threatened to fine him because a user had published his dog meat recipe in the recipe forum under Oliver Jamie’s name.
The Dogmeat.org project was limited to one year. The website was taken offline in May 2003. The domain www.dogmeat.org was immediately taken over by a domain dealer.
