Beer company linked to dog meat signs deal with Arsenal

Exclusive: Street hoardings 'still being put up’ for brewery showing meals of pet flesh

Street adverts for the beer suggest dog meat is the ideal accompaniment (Four Paws)

Arsenal have angered animal lovers by signing a deal with a beer giant that is commonly linked with dog meat in Cambodia.

The Premier League club have agreed a three-year deal with Ganzberg Brewery, whose huge street billboards feature meals made of the meat.

Eating dead dog flesh as a snack alongside beer has been “normalised” in Cambodia, a study has found, and Ganzberg is anecdotally the most popular alcoholic brand in the country.

Researchers for the Four Paws animal-welfare organisation say that last week they saw Ganzberg posters linking beer and dog meat not only still on display, but even new ones being put up.

Under the three-year deal, Ganzberg uses Arsenal branding across billboards, digital advertising and cans.  

When the agreement was announced in September last year, the club quoted Ganzberg’s brewmaster as saying: “This is a great partnership because of our shared values.”

More than 9 million dogs are slaughtered for their meat every year in southeast Asia, Four Paws has calculated, 3 million of which are killed in Cambodia.  

Many of the dogs and cats used for the trade in Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam are pets snatched from the streets. They are transported long distances, often lasting days, and are killed by gruesome methods such as beating, blowtorching, drowning and electrocution, as The Independent has reported.  

The trade is not just “incredibly cruel” but also “serves as a significant public health threat, most notably in the form of rabies”, activists argue.

A report earlier this year showed that nearly two-thirds – 62 per cent – of people surveyed in Cambodia believe dog meat is becoming more popular and acceptable.  

A Four Paws spokeswoman said: “We have raised our concerns with the club, and while they share our disgust at the trade, they have not cut ties with the brand, which is widely accepted as the best accompaniment to dog meat.”

The organisation is calling for Arsenal and Ganzberg to take the adverts down and to publicly support the introduction of a widespread ban on the dog meat trade.

Emily Wilson, of Four Paws, said the British public found dog-meat consumption abhorrent.  

“We hope that this has been an oversight and that this isn’t a trade that Arsenal Football Club is outwardly supporting.  

In talks before the deal was announced, Four Paws reflected that, "in April we were assured by both Arsenal and Ganzberg that they did know about the close connections between the beer and the consumption of dog meat and that they would remove any advertising in which this was conveyed. But last week we have seen evidence of not only the posters continuing to be displayed, but of new ones being erected.  

“We cannot stand by and allow for these two brands to be seen to support a trade which involves unacceptable levels of cruelty and suffering.”  

Sellers surveyed for Four Paws this year said the number of stores selling dog meat had risen in recent years.

Dogs captured in Cambodia (Four Paws)

An Arsenal spokesman told The Independent: “We have been in regular contact with Four Paws and Ganzberg on this serious issue.

“Ganzberg have assured us they do not endorse the consumption of dog meat and they are working hard to remove any independent advertising that does promote this.

“Since we were first made aware of this issue, Ganzberg have removed over 800 independent lightboxes and implemented stricter advertising regulations on independent restaurants.

“We welcome Four Paws’ continued support in helping Ganzberg to identify these independent lightboxes so that they can be removed as a matter of urgency.”

A Ganzberg spokesman told The Independent the company did not promote or condone the consumption of dog meat. “The lightboxes referenced in this article are created by independent shops and restaurants, and we have implemented tighter regulations on use of our logo to avoid this association in the future,” he said.

“No new lightboxes have gone up since 1 June, and we have identified and removed over 806 independent lightboxes that included pictures of dog meat.

“We take this issue very seriously and will continue to work with Four Paws to identify and remove all of these independent lightboxes.”