What this Blog is About
 

     In November 2010 an outbreak of foot and mouth disease took place in South Korea. The government's attempt to control the situation resulted in a massive cull of the infected, and non-infected, animals. In a clear breach of World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines on the killing of animals for disease control purposes, 1.4 million pigs were gathered near large, open pits, bull-dozed into those pits, and buried alive. Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) recently informed me that brutal, mass slaughters of animals are yearly occurrences, and that the South Korean government has neither condemned these practices nor made any efforts to align the handling of future outbreaks with OIE guidelines.

     Dedicated South Korean animal activists are stymied in their efforts to work with intransigent government officials. Activists outside of the country feel powerless.

     But, maybe one thing can grab the attention of South Korean officials. A few months ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the winning bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics to Pyeongchang, South Korea. In the next few years, Korean officials will attempt to present to the world a potentially welcoming face that incorporates good-will, peace, and openness. At the same time, they will keep hidden their gold medal performances as one of the world's leading brutalizers of animals, including chickens, turkeys, ducks, cattle, sheep, and rabbits, not to mention a huge intensive, lawless dog farming industry, and to a lesser scale, a bear farming industry. Shouldn't potential travelers to Pyeongchang be aware of these untidy details as they contemplate booking flights on Korean Air for February 2018?

     It seems overwhelming. For that reason, I've decided to try to tackle just one aspect of the problem: PIGS. Maybe it was the horrifying videos I saw six month ago of the frightened animals being tossed one on top of another into large pits, I don't know, but that's what South Korean Pig Watch will have as its focus. I'm not calling for a boycott of the 2018 Olympics- as of now. What I hope this page will help generate is a massive writing campaign to Republic of Korea officials. Unrelenting pressure tied in with the coming Olympics of 2018 is one of our only bargaining chips. Nothing is more important to them than the outside world's interest in attending or not attending their party seven years from now 

   

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