Blog

This is a translation of campaign news by Korea Animal Rights Advocates, posted on August 18, 2015: Dogs live in fear of death every day at an abandoned meat dog-breeding farm. 방치 된 개농장에서 하루하루 죽음의 공포와 싸우는 개들.

For more than half a year, bodies of dozens of dead dogs were left to rot in cages at an illegal meat dog-breeding farm in Damyang, Jeollabuk-do Province. The owner apparently abandoned the dogs to starve to death when he was unable to get a permit from the local government to operate his illegal dog farm.

This dog farm reveals the hidden side of the practice of dog meat consumption and exposes the reality of an indifferent government and a citizenry whose awareness of the dog meat consumption problem is, at best, superficial.

This industry has been allowed to continue its operations due to the extreme moral laxness and negligence of our administrative government agencies. The dog meat industry has been embellished, justified, and promoted through ignorance.

And the result of this human ignorance has been the unnecessary suffering of living beings.

A live dog is left in the cage with the decomposing carcasses of a dead dog. There is no indication that proper food or water was ever provided to either dog.

Living dogs and the carcasses of those who have died are sharing cages because the owner did not remove the dead bodies, thus exposing the living animals to illness and infection and forcing them to endure the constant fear of death from hunger and thirst.

Some dogs, managing to escape their raised cages, roam the streets looking for food. While they pose a possible threat to the residents of the neighborhood, these people don’t seem to understand or regret that their apathy and lack of concern is the cause of the plight of these starving dogs.

Some dogs have managed to escape the raised cages while others remain imprisoned in them.

Causing the death of animals through neglect is one form of animal cruelty that happens often in our country. Especially extreme neglect is most prevalent in the morally lax meat dog-breeding farms commonly found around the foothills of mountains. Despondent and dejected dogs, tied up and suffering from inadequate food and protection, are found everywhere on these farms.

A lonely dog is tied up next to a carcass of another dog. The food provided is decomposed food garbage.

This is the result when dog farms are operated illegally and the owners, unable to make the farm work, commit acts of emotional and physical cruelty by abandoning both the farm and the animals. It is a reality that cannot be prevented as long as the dog meat consumption industry is allowed to continue. There are so many of these inadequate dog farms scattered around the country it is impossible to count them all.

Dogs that have escaped the cages roaming around.

What’s more frustrating is that the local government, responsible for blocking the construction of these dog farms, which would then prevent any resulting animal cruelty, is doing nothing. Dog farms like this one, and even worse, exist all over the country.

Live dogs, witnessing their friends dying and subjected for months to the stench of the decomposing bodies, must themselves have felt a terrible fear of death

We have been told that the owner is currently providing the surviving dogs with food. Even if that were true, they are still existing in horrific conditions and, judging from the owner’s past behavior, it is doubtful that he will in fact take care of the living animals properly and humanely.

Carcasses of dead dogs left in the cages.

Korea Animal Rights Advocates sent an official document to the Jeollanam-do Provincial Government and the Damyang District Office requesting the removal of the carcasses and the protection of the living dogs. We were able to communicate by phone with the Damyang District Office’s Animal Protection Volunteer Inspection Union staff, and were told that they had removed all the carcasses but had to leave the surviving dogs as there was no facility to transfer them to. For now they said that the Volunteer Inspection Union staff will visit the dog farm again to check on the condition of the remaining dogs.

This poor puppy was probably dying a slow and lonely death.

When confronted with these cases of such horrific abuse and neglect, the local government’s response is always the same, it is not possible to do anything, it’s too difficult. What is difficult to understand is why there have been no countermeasures established to prevent the pervasiveness of these dog farms. As long as our government continues to neglect the problems of the dog meat industry, there will be no hope for the improvement of the animal cruelty issue.

We again ask that Jeollanam-do Damyang District Office immediately remove and protect the remaining dogs from the animal abuser. We strongly urge you to show your firm commitment that you will no longer allow the establishment of dog-breeding farms by rescuing and protecting the dogs at this particular farm. Your actions are the only way to prevent the reoccurrence of this situation.

The expressions on their faces seem to be pleading with us to save them.

Animal cruelty occurs because animals are often weaker than, and dependent upon, humans. But animal cruelty should never happen. No one has the right to abuse another living being.

KARA will do our best to resolve this issue satisfactorily and prevent future occurrences of cases like this.

Please sign petitions against the South Korean Dog Meat Cruelty!

Call For Action

Protest to the Damyang District Office!

• Write to Damyang District Office.
  Address:
  District Manager Hyung-Shik Choi
  1371 Chuseong-ro, Damyang-eup, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do Zipcode 57339, South Korea

  담양군수 최형식
  전남 담양군 담양읍 추성로 1371 우편번호 57339, South Korea

  Sample letter in English and Korean:

  Dear Damyang District Manager Hyung-Shik Choi,
  There are problems at the dog farm located in Damyang, Jeollanam-do Province (address: Damyang-gun, Bongsan-Myeon, kigok-ri 371-2) that include continued animal cruelty and a sanitation risk to the public. Since last winter dozens of dog carcasses have been left in the wired cages with living dogs, and dogs that have escaped the cages have become wild and are roaming freely outside. The neglect and lack of proper care of the dogs resulting in their death is a violation of the Animal Protection Act 3, Article 7, Article 8. Large dogs freely roaming around the neighborhood can become a threat to the safety of local residents.
  Not disposing of the carcasses of the dead dogs causes the remaining dogs to suffer extreme stress as well as creates the potential spread of disease to animals and humans. Therefore, in accordance to the Animal Protection Act Article 14, we request that the remaining dogs be rescued and protected, and the carcasses of the dead animals be disposed of.
  Sincerely,

  최형식 담양군수님,
  업무에 노고가 많으십니다.
  전라남도 담양에 위치한 개사육장 (상세주소: 담양군 봉산면 기곡리 371-2)에 지난 겨울부터 철장에 방치된 여러마리의 개와 수십마리의 개 사체, 풀어져서 야생화 되어가고 있는 개들로 인한 동물학대, 공중위생 등의 문제가 발생하고 있습니다. 개들을 적정히 돌보지 아니하고 죽음에 이를 정도로 방치하는 행위는 동물보호법 3조, 7조, 8조 위반사항입니다. 풀어져 다니는 대형 개들은 이웃 주민들 안전에 위협이 될수도 있습니다. 또한 개들의 사체를 처리하지 않음으로써 남아있는 개들에게 극도의 위험과 스트레스, 아울러 다른 동물 및 인간에게 또한 질병을 퍼뜨릴수 있습니다. 이에, 동물보호법 제 14조에 의거하여, 남아있는 개들을 구조 및 보호하고 사체를 처리하여 줄것을 요구합니다.

  Homepage: http://www.damyang.go.kr/index.damyang

• Post on Facebook. www.facebook.com/damyanggun
  Damyang – Please save the dogs from the animal abuser who starved the dogs to death and left them to rot in the cage with other dogs! http://ekara.org/activity/post/view/105812




• Send Twitter message. https://twitter.com/damyanggun
  @damyanggun Please save the dogs from animal abuser who starved the dogs to death and left them to rot in the cage! http://ekara.org/activity/post/view/105812

Protest to the Jeollanam-do Province!

• Write to Jeollanam-do Province.

  Address:
  Governor Nak-Yon Lee
  Province of Jeollanam-Do, Muan-gun, Samhyang-eup, Oryong-gil 1, Jeollanam-Do, Postal Code 58564, South Korea

  전라남도 이낙연 도지사
  전라남도 무안군 상향읍 오룡길 1 우편번호 58564, South Korea

  Sample letter in English and Korean:

  Dear Jeollanam-do Governor Nak-Yon Lee,
  There are problems at the dog farm located in Damyang, Jeollanam-do Province (address: Damyang-gun, Bongsan-Myeon, kigok-ri 371-2) that include continued animal cruelty and a sanitation risk to the public. Since last winter dozens of dog carcasses have been left in the wired cages with living dogs, and dogs that have escaped the cages have become wild and are roaming freely outside. The neglect and lack of proper care of the dogs resulting in their death is a violation of the Animal Protection Act 3, Article 7, Article 8. Large dogs freely roaming around the neighborhood can become a threat to the safety of local residents. Not disposing of the carcasses of the dead dogs causes the remaining dogs to suffer extreme stress as well as creates the potential spread of disease to animals and humans. Therefore, in accordance to the Animal Protection Act Article 14, we request that the remaining dogs be rescued and protected, and the carcasses of the dead animals be disposed of.
  Sincerely,

  전라남도 이낙연 도지사님,
  업무에 노고가 많으십니다.
  전라남도 담양에 위치한 개사육장 (상세주소: 담양군 봉산면 기곡리 371-2)에 지난 겨울부터 철장에 방치된 여러마리의 개와 수십마리의 개 사체, 풀어져서 야생화 되어가고 있는 개들로 인한 동물학대, 공중위생 등의 문제가 발생하고 있습니다. 개들을 적정히 돌보지 아니하고 죽음에 이를 정도로 방치하는 행위는 동물보호법 3조, 7조, 8조 위반사항입니다. 풀어져 다니는 대형 개들은 이웃 주민들 안전에 위협이 될수도 있습니다. 또한 개들의 사체를 처리하지 않음으로써 남아있는 개들에게 극도의 위험과 스트레스, 아울러 다른 동물 및 인간에게 또한 질병을 퍼뜨릴수 있습니다. 이에, 동물보호법 제 14조에 의거하여, 남아있는 개들을 구조 및 보호하고 사체를 처리하여 줄것을 요구합니다.

  English Homepage: http://english.jeonnam.go.kr/

• Post on Facebook. www.facebook.com/jeonnam.kr
  Jeonnam – Please save the dogs from the animal abuser who starved the dogs to death and left them to rot in the cage with other dogs! http://ekara.org/activity/post/view/105812




• Send Twitter message. https://twitter.com/greenjeonnam
  @greenjeonnam Please save the dogs from animal abuser who starved the dogs to death and left them to rot in the cage! http://ekara.org/activity/post/view/105812