SEOUL, (Reuters) - With World Cup crowds about to bear down on South Korea, the country's pet lovers have rallied to combat the image of Koreans as dog meat devourers, arguing that one person's meal is another's pet.

,,The people who eat dog meat are less than 10 percent of the population", said Cheon Yoon-kyong, one of more than 100 Koreans who marched with their pets in Seoul on Sunday, 12 days before the start of the May 31-June 30 tournament.

,,With the World Cup soccer finals coming up, media and foreigners have an idea that all South Koreans eat and approve of dog meat", he said.

Certain breeds of dog are raised to be eaten in South Korea, notably in poshintang -- literally 'body preservation stew' - a delicacy which some advocates say is healthy.

Big dogs walked along with the protesters who carried banners reading: ,,We are not food" and ,,No dog meat!". The march was followed by an exhibition of grisly photos showing the butchering of dogs.

Although the tradition of eating dog meat continues in South Korea, more and more Korean families raise the animals as pets instead, with some two million dogs in the country of 48 million people.

But South Korea also has about 4,000 registered restaurants that specialise in dog meat and many more which offer it among other dishes.

What causes particular alarm abroad and among animal rights activists in South Korea is the way dogs are killed to make the meat more tender - sometimes by beating, burning or hanging, methods which are illegal but have proved hard to curb.

Early this year, some 100 dog meat restaurant owners held a convention to cook up plans to promote dog meat to foreign tourists during the World Cup.