020555 Brigitte Bardot Death Threats Over Dog MeatMay 27, 2002Vienna - French actress-turned-animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot she had been sent thousands of death threats for criticizing the South Korean practice of eating dog. Bardot angered some South Koreans last year when she said she planned to distribute protest pictures depicting the torture of dogs before the upcoming 2002 World Cup soccer finals, which begin in Korea and Japan later this month. "I have received 7,000 death threats...they are furious with me for my criticism and have said, 'this is our traditional culture," Bardot said. Dogmeat-eating, popular in Korea and among Chinese communities, has emerged as a knotty issue for image-conscious South Korea, co-hosting the World Cup finals with Japan. But Bardot, who was in Austria to receive an award for her animal rights activism, made it clear she would not be silenced. "Eating dogs is not culture, it's grotesque. Culture is composing music like Mozart or building buildings like you see here in Vienna," she said. Some dogs are specially bred in South Korea to be eaten, notably in "poshintang," literally "body preservation stew," which advocates say is good for health and is considered a delicacy by some. Only 16 per cent of dogs in South Korea are bred as pets.
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