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S. Korea conflicted over dogs
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NAM Ki Sung has raised puppies on a small, rural farm for 15 years, delighting in their company, mourning their deaths and eking out a living. He now has less than US$60 in the bank, and struggles to feed his dogs.
Nam is one of many puppy farmers who face collapse amid public anger over recent allegations in media reports and by activists of widespread cruelty at dog farms across South Korea.
“It’s like standing on the edge of a cliff,” Nam, 74, said in an interview where he lives at the farm he has run for 15 years in the town of Yangpyeong. “We are under a death sentence.”
Prices have plummeted for puppies, in large part because of the public outcry over a report by SBS TV in May that showed shocking scenes of abuse, which has led to some rare soul-searching on dog welfare in a country where an estimated 2 million dogs are slaughtered every year for food.
On one side of the dispute are animal rights activists who say most dog farms in South Korea have problems with abuse. On the other are small farmers who say that while their facilities often do need improvements, they’re not as bad as what’s portrayed in recent media reports, which are based on the conditions at only a handful of farms.
During recent visits by media to two unregistered farms, the dogs looked healthy and the facilities generally clean and well-run. Still, it’s impossible to verify those claims because activists say the government mostly fails to monitor dog farms, most of which are unregistered.
South Korea’s pet industry has blossomed in recent years — one in every five households has either a dog or a cat — even as many dog meat restaurants have closed. While the restaurants still exist, younger people often stay away from a delicacy that’s seen as a holdover from a different era. But the country’s animal welfare system and public attitudes toward pets still lag far behind those in many Western countries.
Many South Koreans were appalled by the abuse revealed by the local media reports, some of it captured with hidden cameras: Dogs were confined in squalid, overcrowded wire cages; many were injured or sick, rarely released for exercise. Female dogs were caged until they no longer produced puppies, then slaughtered.
A farmer without a veterinarian license talked in one scene about the cesarean sections she had just performed on female dogs that sprawled nearby, sluggish still with anesthesia.
An association of farms, pet shops and auctions houses says the prices of dogs that used to sell at 200,000-300,000 won (US$173-259) have plunged to 50,000-100,000 won (US$43-86).
Some activists are skeptical of the small farmers’ indignation.
Kim Hyunji at the Seoul-based Korea Animal Rights Advocates said the farms visited by media might have cleaned up their facilities in advance. She said raising dogs in cages is abuse.
Hundreds of angry farmers recently rallied in Seoul, criticizing the media reports and demanding measures to save their endangered businesses.
It is difficult for consumers here to determine where their puppies come from because most pet dogs bred at farms are first sent to auction houses before being sold to pet stores.
Amid the turmoil, the South Korean government recently unveiled measures toughening penalties for abuse; give subsidies to farmers who follow government guidelines; and make it more difficult to open farms.
As his business collapses, Nam holds onto the final memory of a guard dog named Sunny.
“When she was breathing her last breath, I patted her and told her goodbye. She wagged her tail even though she was dying,” Nam said, tears flowing down his face.
“I won’t forget her until I die.”
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