The Times reports on an incredibly disturbing culture in South Korea. Between 2018-2020 the South Korean messaging app Kakao Talk hosted a “gore room”. In this so-called gore room contributors were allowed to post videos of the mutilation of cats and wild animals. I’m told that members of these sorts of online groups don’t use the word “cat” but prefer to cats as “fur cockroaches”. The information comes from Choi Min-kyung of Korea Animal Rights Advocates. On this report this apps’ gore room is not the only one of its kind. This indicates a nasty cult or culture of animal abuse and cruelty.
He said:
“They have created among themselves a clannish culture of inflicting cruelty towards cats and competing in constant one-upmanship in showing off cruelty.”
In an episode of an historical television drama produced in South Korea called The King of Tears a horse is seen falling on his neck throwing off its stunt rider. The filmmakers used a wire to trip up the horse while it was running at full gallop. The horse died of his injuries a few days later.
There is a backlash against what appears to be a culture of animal cruelty which for me, is in line with a similar culture in other Asian countries such as Vietnam and China. Vietnam is known for its dog and cat meat as is China. But there is a backlash in those countries too. There is a growing wave of animal welfare advocates who object to this archaic and cruel attitude towards companion and wild animals.
Apparently, candidates for the main parties in South Korea have picked up on this new mood and are competing to present themselves as animal lovers. This is their method of becoming popular and electable.
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It is reported that 150,000 people signed a petition on the presidential website demanding new rules regarding welfare.
In addition, there are a growing number of cat and dog owners in South Korea who oppose the tradition of eating dog meat. President Moon has proposed a ban. He is supported by the presidential candidate from his own Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Jae-myung, who has promised to create a welfare system for animals. He wants to improve the management of pet food companies. As a provincial governor he ordered an adoption service for abandoned animals.
Lee’s chief opponent in the Conservative People Power Party, Yoon Suk-yeol, fortunately has three cats and four dogs. He has made similar promises to improve animal welfare regulations. He has stopped short of a pledge to ban dog meat, however.
This cult of animal cruelty on what appears to be a version of social media is a poison. It reflects the poisonous nature of social media. The Times journalist, Giles Coren, believes that society is facing a turning point with respect to social media as reflected in Facebook’s 25% drop in its value due to the first reduction in user numbers, apparently, in its history.
Other social media websites have lost value, such as Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest. He hopes that it is the beginning of the end to social media. A lot of people would wish the same.
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It is easy if you are inherently cruel and a cat hater to present your cruel acts online in a kind of competition with other cruel people. Social media brings them together. They massage each other’s perverted mentalities. They regard the stray cat is a pest and as vermin. The lowest of the low: a fur cockroach. Therefore, they are justified in being catastrophically cruel to these sentient creatures with feelings.
Clearly, law enforcement is doing nothing about it. It’s entirely accepted otherwise the report would be that they’ve been arrested. This is what I mean by culture. It pervades society and prevents the police enforcing the law. I must presume that South Korea is developed enough to have some kind of animal welfare law which makes these activities illegal. If they don’t then they are an incredibly backward country. And if I knew that I would not have bought my Samsung smartphone in protest. Samsung as you probably know is a multinational company based in South Korea.
