A primitive mentality operates behind the idea of using scapegoats. It is a delusional action that goes back to the days before science and rationality. Usually an animal is attributed sins or a meaning that has nothing to do with the animal itself. Then in killing it, the thing attributed to it allegedly killed.

Unfortunately, such barbaric practices did not end some 2000 or 3000 years ago. Even today, the "scapegoat" impulse is found in protest actions in Korea. And Koreans who take part in such actions can only be described as primitive, backward and simple-minded.

You can also add evil, demonic and insane in the case of this protest action in involving a 2 month-old pig in Icheon, May, 2007.

This infant pig was ripped apart with a knife and then disemboweled at a rally attended by about 1,500 protesters. It was a protest about a US military facility (or perhaps only an office) being relocated to the area. The mayor of Icheon was there, by the way, along with other officials, all of whom did nothing to stop the evil. Reportedly the torture went on for 20 minutes.

No animal deserves to suffer and die like this.

Well, I guess I expected too much from a country that boasts 5000 years of culture and a miraculous modernization. And I shouldn't be surprised if some of its people insist on barbaric rather then cultured behavior, given that it happens in all countries. But what a shame Korea has come so far and has achieved so much, yet it still cannot entirely demonstrate an enlightened culture.

What could it possibly gain anyone to torture an innocent animal to death? Well, as I mentioned in my preamble about sacrificing animals, it all comes down to symbolism and analogy. At Korean protests, murdering an animal like this is supposedly to express the depth of feeling the protesters feel about an issue. Yes, it's just done to express "emotion."

This is not the first time protesters in Korea have viciously tortured and slaughtered a pig for the purpose of expressing "emotion." In a protest in 2006, a group of former South Korean commandos hacked to death a squealing pig daubed with the word "Koizumi" to protest against the then Japanese Prime Minister, Kiozumi, and his surprise visit to a notorious war shrine.

Here you can see that an axe or knife has already been used on the poor animal in the back of a vehicle. Primitive, barbaric, ignorant, evil, uneducated, small-minded, pathetic, demonic---this is what I think of it, and I'm sure the rest of the civilized world would agree. Clearly, they don't have intelligence tests when screening commando applicants in Korea.

Koreans do get carried away at protests. Sometimes they strive to hurt themselves, and I'm fine with that. But to use a substitute creature as a symbol is pathetic.

The following people genuinely convince me of their emotion. In front of the Japanese Embassy in 2005, a 68-year-old mother snipped off her little finger with pruning shears and her 41-year-old son cut off his finger with a butcher's knife. This was again against Koizumi and to protest the Dokdo issue (an ongoing tussle for a big rock in the ocean between Korea and Japan). Now, to me, those acts are stupid but nonetheless certainly show commitment. 

In contrast, people like those at the protest in Icheon who torture young animals are no more than sadists and cowards. Let's make it plain what they are doing and put it into perspective: the animal they tortured to death was, in the pig world, a small child. I know, people eat the children of nonhuman animals everyday because that's what the meat industry serves up. But these barbaric theatrics pictured here should be seen for what they are: child abuse and torture.

The state of animal treatment throughout Asia is bad in general, and it's no exception in Korea. I'm so ashamed of this country, a country I have made my home, when such abuses go on unchallenged. The laws are weak, as weak as the will of authorities to stop such abuse.

I get the impression that an ingrained thinking in Korean society is also to blame--a widespread backward thinking about animals that prevails alongside an otherwise modern society.

But there's no excuse for practices of ancient stupidity and ignorance in this day and age, no matter what culture. Especially in Korea, a country that values education so highly, there's no excuse for uneducated barbarism like this. Sadly, Korea has some citizens who are a disgrace to humanity. Here they are: low-life peasant-ignorant scum.

I'm writing about this insane incident as my own little protest and to express my emotion. I'll just let stand the truth in words and pictures for all the world to see. That's what civilized people do to prove a point, without killing something.