even dog owners eat dog meat

About one-third of them, actually, the Korea Times . reports.

Bo shin tang--dog meat--falls under a a food group loosely called "invigorating" foods which includes snakes and bear’s gall and some dishes that sound more appealing to Westerners like samgye-tang, a ginseng-and-rice chicken broth.

With its reputation for boosting sexual virility, bo shin tang particularly popular among men--especially right now during bok-nal(the hot days) when it's said that the summer heat depletes sexual energy. One salon.com article likens visits to back-alley bo shin tang restaurants to a trip to Hooters for American men.

Of course, not just any dogs are eaten! Those ones are specially bred. And while I have no plans to eat any bo shin tang while I'm here, before you start branding Koreans as cruel, heartless people, you best think about the last time you ate the holy cow.

Two of my three aunt/uncles here have dogs! One Mong-chee is a grouch who despises me and once tried to bite me while I was feeding him chicken from my hand. The other, Eh-nee(Konglish for Annie), is an adorable white-ish Yorkshire terrier with a sock fetish: