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Rally Against Dog Torturer in Central Seoul |
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Wednesday, 27 January 2010 15:33 |
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( Last Updated on Sunday, 31 January 2010 10:02 ) |
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If a nation's moral progress is judged by the way its animals are treated, then Korea is morally backward and well behind the rest of the modernized world.
Passionate animal activist and leader of the Korean Association for Animal Protection (KAAP), Lee Won-Bok leads the rally's cries for justice.
In Korea, animal abusing scum can get away with murder. Because of this, on Sunday, January 24, 2010, a number of animal welfare groups came together, including Love Animal Association, CARE, Korea Animal Protection Association and KARA, along with other activists to protest the crimes of the Songpa dog torturer and the lack of proper animal protection laws in Korea.
Activists gathered in the cold outside the Seoul City Plaza to call upon the Judicial Committees, the Prosecution Office, the Police Departments to strengthen Korea's weak animal rights laws that invariably give criminal offenders no more than a minor fine.
Activists put on masks with the picture of one of the abused dogs on them. A number of foreigners were present to lend support, too. The press were on hand to photograph the event, and it was later reported widely on the internet, with the resounded message from journalists and commentators to the government to WAKE UP!
This protest comes after the January 17 SBS broadcast of a show called Animal Farm which examined the dog torturing case. There were at least 8 dogs that a serial abuser and killer viciously attacked in his home and then threw out into trash bins. Only 4 survived.
The Songpa psycho burned animals with lighters on the face and lower belly, force fed pieces of cutter blades, pulled out dogs' toe nails with pliers, and one dog’s nose was tightly wired shut until the skin broke and bled profusely. Other dogs were beaten about the head, thrown against the walls, choked, and strangled to death.
This person is now back at his apartment, a free man who could go right ahead and commit more sadistic tortures. Would you tolerate such an individual in your neighborhood? In a couple of years time, as this psycho's pathological impulses continue and are allowed to worsen unchecked, maybe it will be a young child who is attacked.
A few years back, in 2007, a revised law was added to the animal protection law. That law stated that animal abusers found guilty would be fined five million won. However, since then a series of cases have shown that this law is worthless because it is not enforced.
For example, a mother cat and a baby kitten were thrown out from a 17th floor apartment and died. The fine was only 50,000 won (around $50 US). A man burned a cat to death while it was stuck in a cage. He was fined only 250,000 won. A dog was repeatedly beaten over a period of several months and sustained 70 broken bones. The fine was only 200,000 won. Pathetic--and something that brings shame to Korea.
After the rally, everyone headed for a warm coffee shop and took over a corner of it. This was where a lot of ideas were expressed, networking took place, and information was exchanged.
Discussion surrounded the need for reform and revise animal rights legislation, welfare and protection. People debated the need to get tougher with the sentencing of abusers and to expand existing laws.
The issue of strays and pet abandonment were also discussed with a stress on planning and strategies. It was agreed that irresponsible pet owners need to be held to account. Also, laws should allow animals to be taken away from abusive owners, and such individuals should be forbidden to possess animals. Talk went on for a couple of hours.
Everyone thought it was a good idea that such meetings, with representatives of various animal rights groups gathered together, should occur more often. In this way, a united front can be mounted to combat and hopefully resolve the deplorable animal rights situation in Korea.
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Songpa Police Station Rally Against Dog Torturer |
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Saturday, 23 January 2010 09:40 |
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( Last Updated on Saturday, 23 January 2010 11:50 ) |
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On Friday, January 22, 2010, a rally was held outside of the Songpa Police Headquarters, right near Ogeum Station (Line 5) in response to the actions of an animal torturing psycho and the lack of an animal protection law to prosecute him. The issue in question is summarize in our News section.
You can also view SBS videos concerning the issue and the rally at these two links. Be warned that some scenes may be upsetting.
http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1000701054
http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1000701118
KARA and a number of other animal welfare groups and concerned citizens gathered to protest the lack of action. Some pictures of some of what the torturer did were displayed.
Speakers from different groups made strong calls for action by the police and better animal protection laws. As well as Koreans a number of foreigners were present.
SBS and other members of the press were there as well to record the event.
Once the protests were made by the front gate, a delegation of animal activists representing the various groups went inside to talk to the police chief.
We were lead to a small room with officers concerned with the case were present along with the police chief. The activists were very forceful and assertive in their presentations and the talk back and forth with the chief was very animated and loud.
Chief of Police, Songpa
In the end, our efforts may result in the maximum penalty being applied. The problem is that the maximum is only 500,000 won (around $500). At the moment, the psycho is back in his apartment, having been released by the police because there is no law to hold him.
After this rally, some members of animal welfare groups including KARA made their way across Seoul to the Supreme Court, where they submitted--yet again--proposals for changes to the animal protection law.
These have been rejected in the past for some unknown reason.
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Seoul Agricultural & Marine Products Corporation Bullying Pet Owners |
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Tuesday, 01 December 2009 21:01 |
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( Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 December 2009 23:00 ) |
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The Seoul Agricultural & Marine Products Corporation, which runs Seoul's Garak Market in the Songpa area, has ordered all storekeepers to stop bringing their pets with them otherwise they will be fined 1 million won and their business will be suspended for a month. This is for health reasons.
The shopkeepers were forced to submit written promises to follow this order. Among the storekeepers is one who has a 12 year-old cocker spaniel. She brings him everyday to her shop and is heartbroken that she has to stop doing it.
Let's put this in perspective. Garak Market is one of the world's largest wholesale markets and handles 2.4 million tons of products every year. It has around 4,500 merchants and receives as many as 140,000 visitors each day. The market is a hub for around 30 percent of the agri-fisheries products distributed in Korea and it provides 50 percent of the agri-fisheries goods that people living in Seoul consume daily.
Pretty massive, yes? But this huge enterprise is putting all of its weight behind throwing peoples' pets out of their stores, and how many pets are we talking about? About 18 dogs. Hasn't the SAMPC got something better to do with its power and time?
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On November 14, 2009, KARA representatives met with the person in charge of this ridiculous order, Junsik Kim (02-3435-0424), to clarify what was going on.
The position of SAMPC in creating the order is as follows:
- It is necessary because of many civil applications.
- It is necessary for better public hygiene.
KARA asked him to show the received civil applications against pets, but he said that he did not have any documents. He explained that any complaints were accepted at a Dasan Call Center and no documents are kept because they are handled immediately. (Later KARA checked if the Dasan Call Center accepted any civil applications against pets. It had no record because the call center transferred all related applications to SAMPC as soon as it received them. Thus, the tracking of complaints and any follow-up evaporates into thin air.)
KARA then asked Mr. Kim about how pets and abandoned animals were being classified and how the number of dogs in Garak Market was arrived at. This is when KARA found out only 18 dogs were involved, one of which is an abandoned animal. A rather small number indeed for such a massive enterprise to concern itself with.
Can 18 pet dogs jeopardize the heath of a 543,451 square meter market place that people and produce from all over Korea end up at? Highly unlikely, and on top of that, the dogs we are talking about are kept in the stores with storekeepers--in their offices, for example, as in the image below where a home made dog kennel is circled.
SAMPC would appear to be guilty of heavy handedness. It is also bullying by forcing shopkeepers to sign agreements and threatening them with fines and the closure of their shops. Is it a government corporation or a gangster organization? Some officials are reported to have said that they would eat the shopkeepers' pets. Is this really how public servants are allowed to operate in Korea?
On the matter of stray cats, rumor has it that officers may kill all cats with poisoned fish cake. But if all cats disappeared, the market would be overrun with mice and rats in no time given all the garbage lying around--that is, garbage created by humans.
Seoul and the local Songpa-gu councils have carried out TNRs but the Corporation does not seem interested. There are thousands of street-cats who need TNR in the Garak Market area. Some days, you can see over 100 street-cats sitting on the market roofs. Shopkeepers joke that it is an amazing sight.
KARA walked around the market and in one place spotted a person vomiting and on two occasions saw men urinating in the street. It would seem, then, there are more urgent issues concerning public hygiene at Garack Market than pet dogs.
KARA's manager put it to the SAMPC that the case should be handled under the animal protect law because moving all pets out of Garak Market might cause more pet abandonment.
The last word from Mr. Lee is that no one will be putting down poisoned food to kill cats. He has also promised to discuss the cat issue with Seoul and Songpa-gu Council. He said that he will stop any cohesion to force shopkeepers to sign written agreements, that is, if it has been happening. Of course, SAMPC is not about to admit it.
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How You Can Help
KARA is a volunteer organization that relies on support from the community. You can help us by donating so that we can continue to fight for the rights of animals in Korea.
Donations can be made via the button, or if you have a Paypal account you can send a donation to donate@animalrightskorea.org. Every bit helps towards freeing animals from cruelty and giving them the rights and respect they deserve.
Jin Young Building, B1 / 107-43, Banpo4-Dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul - Tel: 82-010-9003-0439 / Fax: 82-2-3482-8835
The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?
Jeremy Bentham
I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.
Henry David Thoreau
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass
I know, in my soul, that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and who never has a chance to be a real being, is unhealthy. It's like...you're just eating misery. You're eating a bitter life.
Alice Walker
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.
Pythagoras
Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals.
Theodor Adorno
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
William Ralph Inge
In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals.
Peter Singer
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.
Leo Tolstoy
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mahatma Gandhi
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
Thomas Edison
Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.
George Bernard Shaw
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.
Charles Darwin
I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Albert Einstein
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