Animal Cruelty in Korea

It breaks my animal loving heart to see the reality of animals in Korea.

It's been pushing me so far that I started doing research on how to adopt a dog, cat, rabbit or any other pet for that matter. I have been searching on every possible site of every animal vet or shelter to see if there is something I can do to stop an animal from being handled in a cruel way or being abused to a severe extend. Korea already have absolutely no wild life what so ever. Everything are being killed to an enormous extend. To the point where I freak out if I see a little bird very well known in South Africa as the "Mossie".

In Korea you get two extremes like everything else they do:

Everyday the first thing I see is a dog chained to a pole with nothing but a dog cage and a bowl of water. And to make it worse the dog has no grass, blanket or mat to keep it from lying on the cold hard pavement. This includes not taking the dog inside at night time and leaving it outside while temperature drops are sometimes below 10ºC. Did I mention it snows here in winter months.

This little guy lives on a farm with gates that can close yet his tied up to his cage.

They even tie up their cats to a chain. The don't know cats that well since I never had cats of my own as pets when I still lived back at home but I always loved them. My own animal loving instinct tells me that you cannot put a chain on a cat and prevent it from exploring the world around it. Cats are predators and as part of their nature they hunt for all small living creatures. You can house train your cat in order to be able to keep the cat inside majority of the day but you cannot always do that. They need to be cat too. Seeing this poor little cat tied up outside on the street left with a sandbox that I don't think has been cleaned at all in like a month and fed chicken left overs from the restaurant of its owners broke my heart. When you walk past the cat you can hear him mowing. Today I went to say hallo to the poor animal and gave him a nice rub only to realise that this cat has a skin disease of some sort and he probably hasn't been washed once in his life. His fur is dusty and dry and not as soft as it should be.

This fella is tied to the drain lid outside his owners restaurant. 

I got to school the one day hearing dogs bark but not seeing the dog until a later stage when I actually particularly looked for a specific puppy dog I greeted the previous day. To my shock I saw the most horrible inhumane thing ever. Dogs being kept in cages not bigger than 1,2m x 800cm, 1 meter above the ground. Besides for being kept in an extremely small cage they also have nothing but a grid they walk on. Their paws are probably raw from walking on this grid the whole time. I assume the grids are used as a easier method to clean their poop. Getting no attention and only being fed once a day it's horrors me to see these animals bark and waging their tales as if their life is great. These dogs are part of a dog farm. We have cow farms, pig farms and horse farms etc. where we fence off the animals feed them fat and then slaughter them for food. Here in Korea people also do this except they only eat the white dogs because their meat is more pure than other dogs which reminds me of the black cat witch story bull shit that people in the old days used to believe. Just remember that this farm is literally right outside my school grounds. I can see the dogs from the school grounds. It's not something you should encourage your children to see. Especially not elementary school children.

These are the cages where the dogs are kept. 

Then you also get the people that abandon their dogs once they realise that their dog has an illness such as epilepsy. They abandon them at the nearest Vet or shelter or just on the street where they are left to die. After searching for some animal to adopt while I am here I came across this by looking at the history of the animals and their special needs. It's shocking how many of the small dogs was left to die after they got sick or an infection just because their parents didn't want to spend money on them. According to me nobody abandon their own children when they get sick rather they get the best care in the world. Why is it so easy for people right around the world not to see it like this. You took on a responsibility to care for a helpless animal and now you will just throw it away?

I do get the fact that people in Korea don't have yards for their dogs to run freely. Most Koreans also stay in apartments with a whole family which creates a problem when it comes to space. I believe that if you do not have the room of a dog in your house or you don't have a yard for the dog then don't get a dog at all. Even though we all love pets we need to consider their life as well. What a lot of Koreans do is tie their dogs up at their shops if they have a shop with a canopy where the dog can stay and then they take them for walks frequently during the day. But then you also get the people who tie their dogs up even when they do have a yard where the dog can play and run around.

Now the other side of the flip coin is people who make their pets so part of the family that the pet has a special closet of clothing that matches those of its owner. They spend so much money on treating these dogs like their own children that they forget what actually makes a dog happy - playing go fetch with it. They also go as far as to dying their pets hair into characters and making them look like some other animal or even like a cartoon character such as Pikachu. They will also advertise a kitten by saying "Buy a Pikachu". Some of these I think is cute but I can't help but wonder how this dye affects their hair and skin. Surely this dye products they use were not designed for dog skins and human hair dye would be way to strong for them. Never mind even taking into consideration that animals clean themselves by licking. Isn't this dye toxic to their little bodies? I don't think having a hippie of a dog would be the best for the dog's health at all. That also counts for cats.

I am not sure how to handle all of this but I cannot turn my face away and look away from the cruelty and evil that's around me. I don't know what to do yet but it feels like it might be my life mission. Although I am only a small fish in a very big pond not even understanding the culture and believes of these people.