South Korea
National parks
3.7% of South Korea’s territory is dedicated to national parks. The first one, designated in 1967, is Jirsan Mountain, covering 471 km2. Once common, the most emblematic species of Jirsan is the now threatened Asian black bear, which ended up being almost extinct because of hunting. A small population of around 20 of these bears remain within the Jirsan Restoration Center as part of a reintroduction project. In contrast, there are more than 1000 bears legally held in captivity for their bile in South Korea itself.
Cat and dog meat
Around 2 million dogs and cats are tortured and killed every year in South Korea for their meat. Dogs and cats are killed after being tortured in an extreme and prolonged manner so that their body releases adrenaline which causes the meat to become hard, as it is believed that eating such meat increases virility. These animals are sometimes boiled alive to produce “tonics” for rheumatisms. The Bok-Nal is an annual festival held in South Korea in the hottest months of the year, to promote eating dog meat as a way to “strengthen” the body against high temperatures. The consumption of this “typical product” encourages and supports extreme cruelty to animals.
Shark fin soup
Known as “buldojang” in Korea, shark fin soup is offered as a “specialty” on the menus of many large hotels throughout Asia. With a particularly cruel hunting method, sharks are taken out of the water and their fins are cut off in a process called “finning”, while their bodies are thrown back into the water to bleed to death. This trade is not regulated and the low level of reproduction of these animals makes the recovery of their populations very slow and puts ecological balance in danger.
Live octopus
In some Korean restaurants, it is considered a “delicacy” to eat an octopus while it is still alive: the octopus is served on a plate with vegetables, rice and sauces and cut alive there. Culture and tradition should not be an excuse for animal cruelty or become an attraction.
More information about traditional dishes of animal origin here
Dolphinariums
In this country you can also find centers which keep cetaceans (dolphins, killer whales or beluga whales) in captivity. Science has shown that these intelligent animals suffer greatly in the limiting conditions of dolphinariums and their stress levels and mortality rates are very high.
The training of these animals for circus shows where they perform totally unnatural behaviors, and which can harm them physically, is achieved through keeping the animals in a permanent state of hunger so that they act in exchange for a piece of dead fish.
Condemned by their facial structure, which resembles a human smile, these highly social animals, which would swim long distances and dive into great depths in the wild, are used to perform stunts in small concrete tanks. Many of the animals are taken from the wild.
For more information: SOSdelfines.
Here is a list of local NGOs that can be contacted in case you want to make a donation, a complaint or find an animal that needs help in South Korea:
Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth
