Jindo Dogs in South Korea Are Facing Cruelty, Resident Brings The Issue to Social Media
About twenty stray South Korean Jindo dogs have been found locked up rusty cages in a chicken farm, and have reportedly been surviving on dead chickens for nearly a year, Korea JoongAng Daily reported Sunday.
Oh Jin Ok, resident of Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, discovered the horrid situation of the dogs by chance.
According to Oh, the dogs were horribly treated by the residents of the farm. They were not fed properly and they were covered in their own feces when they were found. She immediately returned to the site to feed the dogs and clean their dirty cages. When the farm owner discovered what she was up to, he threatened to see the dogs at the dog market.
Upon seeing the dire state that the dogs are in, Oh immediately raised awareness issue through social media. So far she has raised $6,700 to buy food and other necessities for the dogs. She reportedly paid around $4,127 to pay the farm owner in exchange for the dogs' freedom. The Jindo dogs have since been transferred to a new home Oh built.
Oh is currently looking for families that are willing to adopt the dogs and take care of them.
Cruelty against have become a growing cause for concern in South Korea. According to Humane Society International Organization, millions of dogs in South Korea, including the local Jindo breed, are facing a harrowing fate as the dog meat trade propagates throughout Asia. Most of these dogs were just snatched up from the streets. However, only South Korea has been identified as the only Asian country to have a farming industry that produces dog meat.
Many Jindo dogs have been abandoned and left to wander around as strays. Due to this their population has boomed in recent years. There are approximately 300,000 Jindo dogs in South Korea today.
Empathy for Life, one of the largest online groups dedicated to dog rescue, revealed that in November last year, about 15 Jindo dogs were euthanized in an attempt to control their overwhelming population.