Submitted by Kevin, 2007/01/16 03:41:52

The owner of these dogs is a typical dog meat vendor, having run a dog farm at Changsoo-Dong, Incheon, Korea for over 10 years with no property rights to the farm site. When the government officers visited the farm to make execution proceedings, they were shocked by the cruel conditions dogs were kept. According to the officers, 5 to 6 dogs were crammed in each cage measured 70x60x70cm3, where they could hardly move. With feces piled up over 1 meter, many dogs were dying of hunger and diseases. The bodies of dead ones were all over, some of whom were bitten up to death by other dogs and some died of diseases. “Even those who are crazy for dog meat wouldn’t dare to eat it anymore, if they knew the reality” said the officers.

In May last year, the dogs were removed to the current place by the officers, which was temporarily arranged on the road, and the conditions for the dogs have gone from bad to worse. Like most Koreans, the officers of Inchoen, that hopes to host the 2014 Asian Games, do not see dogs as living creatures. Dogs are just food materials to their eyes. Locked up in limited pens, the dogs are left on the asphalt and exposed to rain and snow. There are neither windbreaks nor roofs. They had to spend the harsh last winter in this horrible environment, and many of them could not survive.

When animal protection society members visited the site this month, they noticed a number of injured dogs. Due to fights among them, which is not uncommon in dog farms, some dogs had no ears and/or no tails, and some were limping. Infected with scabies, their skin was rotting with pus all over their bodies. The only food available, if that can be called food, was decomposing food waste. Cannibalism was commonplace, and new-born puppies were being eaten by starving dogs.

These cruelties against animals are believed to be very common in Korea, but there is no way to provide legal protections for abused animals. Currently the maximum penalty against animal abuse is only $200. Not to mention forfeiture, there are no regulations stipulating sheltering abused animals to safe places, which the Korean government has refused to legislate. Korea is an Auschwitz for animals.