Stray cats, long considered “pests” by the US military, were shot in the head at the Osan Air Base in South Korea last year. Have things changed? A military wife speaks out. In May, the South Korean media revealed shocking images from the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. Not only were stray cats…
A Beagle Rescue Network volunteer guides the blogger to a beagle shelter in the central part of South Korea. Many of the dogs come from laboratories. It was beaglemania at the Beagle Rescue Network’s shelter in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, when I visited in July 2019 with longtime animal volunteer Jeong Buyun. A magical place…
Pandora the Jindo dog went missing in Seoul in 2012. She was never found. “Don’t give up. You can find Pandora. She is out there and she is waiting for you. She is trying to get home. I lost my own dog when I foolishly left her on a leash unattended for a few minutes…
A Korean charity collaborated with Korean vets and US military personnel to neuter about 200 feral cats at the soon-to-be-former Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. What will happen when the base closes? (Continued from part 1.) Despite its increasing popularity as a humane, effective way of controlling feral cat populations, trap-neuter-release has its detractors. Cats get in…
In Korea and much of the world, trap-neuter-return programs are a widely accepted way of controlling feral populations and reducing conflicts between cats and humans. Why is the US military so slow to catch up? Kerri Burrows used to go hiking on Namsan every week. On one hike, she saw a poster about stray cats. She…
A new generation of Korean animal rights activists is determined to stand up for the defenseless, even if it means leaving their comfort zones. Heeji Yi has become an unstoppable force in the local animal rights scene. She’s attended protests, done vegan education at Cube of Truth events, and organized Save vigils for animals on…
Where Korea’s cyberbullies (and a few cool people) did their thing before the rise of social media. Sometime around 2007, a woman I barely knew started a thread on a message board and addressed it to me. She made sure to tell me to fuck off in the subject line. Another member of the same…
Vegan activists with display monitors gather every week in Myeong-dong, downtown Seoul, and show graphic footage of animal slaughter. Are passers-by making the connection? The first time I observed a Cube of Truth event in Myeong-dong, the busy shopping area in downtown Seoul, I’d followed the group’s activities on social media for some time. The…