Caring for a Companion

Caring for a Companion

Volunteers’ Efforts to Improve Conditions at Gwangju Animal Shelter

Written By Laura Becker

This past October, a 55-year-old woman was killed by a falling brick while building a shelter for feral cats at her apartment complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Identified only by her surname, Park, she quickly became known to the media as “Cat Mom.”With no clues surfacing in the first week, speculation focused on conflicts between “cat moms” and their neighbors. According to the police, the elementary school student who threw the brick had no intention to cause harm and was too young to be held accountable under current laws.

Park’s death may not have been the hate crime that some suspected; nonetheless, her story brought attention to the uphill battle of advocating for animals in Korea.

Owning pets is a relatively new phenomenon in Korea. In the past, animals were viewed either as workers or as food. The pet industry began to boom when the nation industrialized and more and more people had disposable incomes. There remains a perceived distinction between small breeds, better suited for apartment living, and larger ones, such as Korea’s native Jindo dogs, which are often still seen from a strictly utilitarian perspective.

Cats have historically been viewed unfavorably as rat control, vermin or bearers of ill fortune, but these attitudes are disappearing. A growing number of Koreans are cat lovers, especially young urban dwellers, and veterinary care and supplies for cats are readily available.

The surge in popularity of pet dogs and cats has resulted in a parallel increase in abandoned animals. In July 2011, the Korea Times reported that over 100,000 pets were abandoned across the country in 2010. Of these, only a tiny percentage were placed in homes. An estimated 200,000 feral cats roam the streets of Seoul alone.

Fighting against the rising tide of abandonment and neglect are a number of animal rescue and advocacy groups, among them Bodumi in Gwangju. Bodumi caused a stir this year when it sued the Gwangju Animal Shelter, accusing the shelter of misusing funds and failing to provide the animals with minimum basic care.

Bodumi member Jiseong Heo explained that 10 years ago, the city of Gwangju was managing the shelter and welcoming a large number of volunteers. The Gwangju shelter was doing so well that other shelters around the country used it as a model of success and came to observe how it was run. Those days, however, have passed.

Presently, the shelter receives approximately USD $400,000 per year from city government but allocates only 6-8 percent of funds to the animals’ food and needs, while 75 percent goes to officials’ salaries. The city is no longer directly running the shelter but has a contract with the Institute of Animal Medicine at Chonnam University.

Veterinarians from the university are paid to sit on a board of directors, but they are not involved in the day-to-day running of the shelter. The head of the shelter also has ties with the group and receives pay despite not being present at the shelter. “We never see him. We have no contact with him,” Heo said.

When Bodumi members volunteer at the Buk-gu shelter, they groom, walk and clean the animals alongside the small on-site staff: receptionist, groomer, veterinarian, janitor and eight “rescuers” whose jobs are to collect animals from the street.

Most of the rescuers are older men employed through the city government’s job program and have little or no experience working with animals. “Sometimes people call them and they do not come, or they come but cannot catch the dog,” Heo said.

Inside the shelter, over 100 dogs and cats live in dirty cages with wire mesh floors. The shelter stopped euthanizing animals in February 2015, but many die at the shelter from respiratory illnesses and skin conditions. Young animals are particularly vulnerable. According to Heo, the shelter sometimes allows Bodumi members to foster young animals at their homes. “The shelter staff know that if the young dogs and cats stay at the shelter, they will die,” Heo said.

Before the lawsuit, the shelter was closed off to volunteers, unwilling to let them see what was going on inside. Today, Bodumi members volunteer on weekends and are collaborating with a local cat mom group to work out a schedule of alternating weekends.

Bodumi volunteers may not be a welcome sight for all at the shelter. Bodumi’s decision to put public pressure on the shelter and demand more transparency and better conditions for the animals strained the organization’s relationship with shelter officials. “If they try to say they are not accepting volunteers, we just tell them we are from Bodumi, and they let us in,” Ms. Heo said. “They know that if they do not, we will make trouble.” An English academy owner, Heo brings students to the shelter and tasks them with dog-walking while the adults tackle the more difficult job of cleaning the cages.

Gwangju residents who speak Korean can register to volunteer at the Gwangju Animal Shelter through its website, kcanimal.or.kr. English speakers are encouraged to watch the Gwangju Pets Facebook page for opportunities to volunteer on weekends with Bodumi.