Microwave dog meat offered in South Korea

Dog meat lovers in South Korea can now find the delicacy ready wrapped for the microwave.

And the Seoul restaurant owner who set up the delivery service says business is brisk.

‘‘Our purpose is to provide to patients in hospitals and other people who want dog meat but do not have access to it,’’ Yang Sun-ja said today.

Since starting the operation in June, he said he has taken an average of 100 orders a day.

The dog meat, which costs €11.90 for each plastic container, is ready to serve after about four minutes in a microwave.

About three million of South Korea’s 47 million people are believed to eat dog meat, and there are an estimated 6,000 dog meat restaurants across the country.

International animal rights groups call the practice barbaric, but South Korea ignored a call to ban dog meat sales during the football World Cup in June.

South Korea has no law governing the sale of dog meat. Concerned about its image, the nation temporarily closed dog meat restaurants in Seoul during the 1988 Summer Olympics.

It cited a law that bans sales of ‘‘unsightly food’’. But many Koreans consider criticism of the practice a slight to their national pride.

South Koreans slaughter only so-called ‘‘meat dogs’’ that are bred for eating, rather than as pets.