A Plea for Compassion: Protect Chained Dogs from Burning Alive in South Korean Wildfires (Sister City: Gimhae & Salem, Oregon)

posted by KoreanDogs.org team on November 19,2025 in Uncategorized

Photos: Charles, a dog who miraculously escaped a wildfire after being severely burned across his entire body, including inside his mouth, is now receiving intensive care and showing remarkable resilience despite his horrific injuries. Tragically, Charles witnessed his friend, tied next to him, burn to death. https://koreandogs.org/charles/

Despite the 2023 revision of South Korea’s Animal Protection Act—which set a two-meter minimum tether length—lifelong tethering remains legal, widespread, and profoundly inhumane. A two-meter chain offers no real freedom or dignity. Across the country, dogs endure short chains, filth, harsh weather, and utter neglect. Treated as tools or property, their suffering is normalized, hidden, and ignored.

The devastating wildfires of March 2025 once again exposed the full horror of this systemic neglect. Countless dogs, permanently chained or caged, were abandoned during evacuations—left to burn alive in agony. This was not just a failure of disaster response—it was a moral and ethical failure of society as a whole.

In response, South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) issued the “Manual for the Rescue and Protection of Companion Animals During Natural Disasters” in May 2025. We recognize and commend this step as an important milestone: the manual acknowledges companion animals as family members, outlines roles for government agencies, and promotes local emergency planning and public awareness. However, the manual is non-binding. It does not mandate the evacuation of animals, nor does it address or prohibit the practice of lifelong tethering.

Even more alarmingly, countless dogs are kept in isolation—chained at fields, orchards, factories, or warehouses, far from human care. Labeled as tools, not pets, they are denied legal protection and left exposed to extreme weather and deadly disasters, unable to escape. This is not mere neglect—it’s institutionalized cruelty. If people won’t protect them, the law must.

As KoreanDogs.org and many allied organizations have emphasized, true protection requires more than suggestions. Real change requires legally enforceable action and accountability.

We therefore call on the South Korean government to enact urgent and meaningful reforms:

• Ban lifelong tethering nationwide. This cruel and outdated practice causes ongoing physical and psychological suffering and must end.
• Ban the remote, solitary confinement of dogs—isolated from human residences, care, and companionship. No dog should be forced to live out its life alone and unprotected, treated as a disposable tool.
• Mandate companion animal evacuation by law during all declared emergencies. No animal should ever be left behind to burn, drown, starve, or freeze.
• Prosecute abandonment and cruelty with severe, consistent penalties, especially during disasters when the consequences are often fatal.
• Require local governments to develop and implement enforceable animal disaster plans, with oversight and accountability.

We also urge Sister and Friendship Cities around the world to take a principled stand. These partnerships must not overlook the suffering and destruction caused by inadequate animal protection laws in South Korea. We ask global partners to raise their voices: urge your counterparts in South Korea to legislate lasting reforms, including a ban on tethering, isolated keeping, and mandatory evacuation protocols for all companion animals.

This is a pivotal moment. The world is watching. South Korea can choose compassion and leadership, or remain complicit in avoidable cruelty.
Let us demand change—together.

In a devastating display of cruelty during the South Korean wildfire, tethered and abandoned dogs perished. This tragedy underscores the urgent need for a fundamental shift towards compassion within South Korean society. CARE.

✍🏼 Sign the Petition

Call for Action

👉 📧 Send emails using the Suggested Message (below) to all listed officials—both U.S. and Korean.

Salem City Council:
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];

Gimhae City Council:
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];

👉 📬 Mail the letter.

City of Salem
P.O. Box 14300
Salem, OR 97309-3986
USA

📬 Send a copy of your letter to Gimhae:

Mayor Hong Tae-yong
Gimhae City Hall
(50924) 2401 Gimhae-daero, Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do
South Korea

Gimhae City Council
(50924) 2401 Gimhae-daero, Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do
South Korea

📬 Gimhae addresses in Korean:

홍태용 시장님
김해시청
(50924) 경상남도 김해시 김해대로 2401
South Korea

김해시의회
(50924) 경상남도 김해시 김해대로 2401
South Korea

📝 Suggested message

Urgent Appeal to Salem: Help End Tethering and Remote Solitary Confinement of Dogs in Sister City Gimhae, South Korea

Dear Mayor Julie Hoy and Esteemed Representatives of Salem,

I write with deep urgency and a heartfelt plea for your compassionate leadership. In Gimhae, South Korea—your Sister City—countless dogs are suffering in silence due to the systemic cruelty of remote, lifelong confinement and tethering.

Across South Korea, countless dogs—often called “field dogs”—are chained alone in remote fields, orchards, warehouses, and even fish farms at sea. Meant to “guard” property, they are, in reality, powerless to protect anything—not even themselves. Tethered for life with little to no shelter or care, they endure extreme heat, bitter cold, hunger, and fear. When disasters strike, they are left to die horrific deaths, trapped and unable to flee. This is not tradition—it’s cruelty, passed down and accepted for too long.

Even now, these “field dogs” are not seen as living beings in need of care, but as disposable property. This isn’t just neglect—it’s institutionalized cruelty driven by a legal loophole that allows owners to exclude dogs from all protection simply by claiming they aren’t “companion animals.”

Although South Korea recently issued a Manual for the Rescue and Protection of Companion Animals During Natural Disasters (May 2025), it carries no legal force. Lifelong tethering remains legal, and no enforceable laws guarantee animals will be evacuated or protected in emergencies.

This is a moral crisis—and it is unfolding in your Sister City.

We are joining a growing national campaign urging the South Korean government to ban the remote confinement and tethering of dogs. It’s time to end the abandonment of animals in places far from human care. If people cannot be their guardians, then the law must become their protector.

As a global city with deep ties to Gimhae, Salem has a rare and powerful opportunity to influence this situation. I respectfully urge you to take the following actions:

1. Publicly denounce the cruelty of lifelong tethering and the abandonment of animals during disasters. Silence allows this systemic suffering to continue.

2. Contact your counterparts in Gimhae and urge them to support national legislation that bans the remote confinement of dogs and mandates animal evacuation protocols.

3. Advocate for comprehensive reforms in South Korea, including:

A complete ban on lifelong tethering and remote confinement of dogs
Legally binding evacuation measures for animals during emergencies
Real penalties for abandonment and neglect
Public education campaigns to promote empathy and responsible care

4. Extend Salem’s hand in partnership—offering support through humane disaster planning, policy exchange, and public messaging that redefines what international friendship can mean.

Please, take a moment to see the faces behind this tragedy (warning: deeply disturbing content):

Legal reform is the only way to truly end this cruelty. While South Korea’s recent efforts are a start, only strong new laws can save countless lives and show the world what true compassion looks like. As leaders of Gimhae’s Sister City, your voice matters more than you know. Please use it to speak for these forgotten animals. A global petition is growing: https://c.org/2fKztbKDrm. Please let this be the moment when Salem’s international friendship with Gimhae becomes a real force for change—not just for human lives, but for the loyal animals who suffer out of sight, tethered and forgotten.

With deep respect, urgency, and hope for your leadership,

[Your name, city, country]

👉 Post on X and Bluesky.

A Plea for Compassion: Protect Chained Dogs from Burning Alive in #SouthKorean #Wildfires Sister City #Gimhae #Salem #BanDogTethering #EndDogChainingKorea #AnimalWelfareKorea✍️https://c.org/2fKztbKDrm✊https://koreandogs.org/a-plea-for-compassion-gimhae-Salem/✊https://koreandogs.org/a-plea-for-compassion-sister-city-us/ 👉🏽FB https://www.facebook.com/BanTether/

👉 Join the effort! Click HERE and HERE for more ways you can help.

Video: Left chained to farm equipment as a wildfire engulfed her village in South Korea, Bbibbi, a year-old puppy, was found barely alive with severe burns after her owner abandoned her, highlighting a critical lack of empathy and inadequate animal protection laws. https://koreandogs.org/bbibbi/

Video: Daan spent three agonizing years tied to a tree, enduring harsh weather, malnutrition, and blindness with no love or shelter, until he was finally rescued—too late to regain his health but given a chance to experience kindness. Despite medical care and a brief time in a safe space, he passed away, leaving behind a heartbreaking reminder of the cruelty animals endure and a plea for compassion toward all sentient beings. To learn more, click 👉 HERE, HERE, HERE.

Video: 💔 CARE’s Grim Discovery: Agony in the Ashes - Burned Dogs Found

Video: Amidst the devastating South Korean wildfires that killed many and destroyed homes, junior dogs who escaped a burning dog farm were found by CARE, demonstrating incredible loyalty by staying together despite severe burns and starvation, highlighting the tragic abandonment of countless animals and the urgent need for improved animal welfare.
Amidst the Inferno: Junior Dogs Found and Rescued, Clinging to Each Other.🐾🐾 CARE

Categories: Uncategorized