Fw: Moran Market, Korea

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" Merritt Clifton, editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE. " <anmlpepl

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Thursday, 29 September, 1938 14:45

Moran Market, Korea

 

Letters to the Editor

The Korea Herald

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Editor:

 

Today, May 19, 2001, I inspected the animal care conditions at

the Moran marketplace, southwest of Seoul, in my capacity as editor of

ANIMAL PEOPLE. I was accompanied by ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett

and North Shore Animal League America animal care expert Tammy Kirkpatrick.

 

 

Among us, we brought to the Moran marketplace 77 years of

experience in field inspection of animal care facilities, in all parts of

the world.

 

Never before have I seen such flagrant neglect of basic animal care

as we saw at the Moran marketplace and documented with 92 photographs.

 

We saw cats and rabbits piled atop others so that those at the

bottom suffocated, dehydrated, and in some cases remained there even

after going into rigor mortis.

 

We saw poultry confined with others of their species who were also

not only dead but in rigor mortis, in cages crusted with feces.

 

We saw severely injured cats offered for sale with festering head

wounds.

 

We saw cats who were so seriously ill with contagious disease that

in all likelihood they would die before the day was over, even if

overheating and dehydration had not been evident.

 

And, as expected, we saw dogs kept in every imaginable condition

of neglect and misery. There was not even one vendor who kept animals of

any kind in conditions meeting the minimum standards considered acceptable

in the U.S. and Europe--and most fell short of the standards enforced in

much less affluent environs, including India, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, the

Philippines, and Puerto Rico,

 

We not only saw all this; we gathered evidence sufficient to prove

it.

 

All of the abuse and neglect we witnessed was not only

unconscionably cruel, but appallingly unhygienic. Supposedly the Moran

market and others like it sell live animals for human consumption so that

the buyers will know the meat is fresh, yet the meat from diseased,

injured, and neglected animals is highly subject to contamination.

 

I will not say that I have never before seen animals kept in

comparable condition. Indeed I have, in the homes of mentally ill persons

who have hoarded animals along with garbage until the filth caused the

authorities to haul the offenders off either to jail or a lunatic asylum,

at the discretion of a judge.

 

This begs the question: is Korea mentally ill?

 

Why else would an otherwise clean and decent society tolerate such

a public obscenity?

 

If mental illness is not the issue, why do the live animal vendors

themselves not realize that killing animals slowly through neglect is not a

profitable way to do business?

 

Why do the people of Korea allow activities to continue which cause

animal protection organizations to subject the nation's major businesses to

international boycott, and cause visitors to silently ask themselves of

every Korean they encounter, " Is this person a dog-eater or cat eater? "

 

We arrived in Korea already familiar with the 20 years of excuses

issued by Korean officials that dog-eating and cat-eating are part of

traditional Korean culture. We therefore expected the consumption of dogs

and cats to be far more prevalent than it is, with cultural visiblity and

status analagous to that of fox hunting in England.

 

To our surprise, we discovered that dog-eating and cat-eating

actually have no more visibility or status than prostition, drug-dealing,

and gambling: they occur in certain districts, yet are not advertised,

and are not easily visible.

 

Why, then, are dog-eating and cat-eating and the other abuses of

animals we saw at the Moran marketplace tolerated to the extent that they

are, while prostitution, drug-dealing, and gambling are repressed and

punished?

 

We have considered the possibility that the Moran marketplace is

tolerated simply because it is traditional. Yet Korea has shown little

reluctance to throw off other traditions when they have shown themselves to

be anachronistic and unhealthy.

 

We have considered, too, that the major consumers of dogs and

cats may be the elderly, who enjoy special deference. On the other hand,

the elderly are among the people most vulnerable to the types of disease

which are most likely to be transmitted by keeping animals in the sort of

stressed and dirty conditions we documented at the Moran marketplace.

 

From any perspective, including an objective assessment of how to

sell meat in a manner which is both profitable to the butcher and safe to

the consumer, it is not rational that Korea should continue to tolerate

and defend the Moran marketplace and others like it.

 

The very definition of insanity is the mindless repetition of

irrational acts. And so, looking again at our notes and 92 photos of the

Moran marketplace, I ask again, is Korea mentally ill?

 

Merritt Clifton

Editor

ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 1-360-579-2505

Fax: 1-360-579-2565

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading indepedent newspaper providing original

investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, in all facets,

from animal care-and-control to zoological conservation. We have no

alignment or affiliation with any other entity.]