Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lulu144]

So yesterday I was walking home down the sketchy little road alley to my house and there was a puppy. It was a jindo dog probably 6 months. Anyways it was raining and it was following me and I felt really bad for it. I wanted to take it inside, but then i thought it might bite more or something. Lately I've even been thinking i want to get a jindo dog when i go back to Canada. So seconds later a car sped by and it got hit right in front of me. I screamed...it yelped. It kind of spun on the ground, was shocked for a few moments and then somehow got up and ran away. I was totally freaked out, and of course the car just kept going and a couple that was near by just stared at me like I was crazy for caring. So all night I was thinking about this poor animal and how there's nothing I can do. The this morning I was walking to the bus and I saw on the ground where it had spun around blood on the cement. Then a little bit further up it was tied up on a 2 foot rope outside a construction site. It's still alive, and I couldn't see any injuries, but it just stared at me all cute when I walked by. I'm sure it will still be there when i go home, and I feel terrible. It probably has a big road burn on it's back and a broken leg. I don't know what to do. I hate the way animals are treated here, and there probably isn't anything I can do. Not doing anything makes me feel like I'm ignoring it....... I'm totally bothered by this.....
any suggestions?

[rawiri]

Sorry to say but you just have to harden yourself to things like this. It's tough to do but necessary, nothing you do or say will make any difference whatsoever to the mentatlity of a lot of koreans regrding animal welfare/rights. Although this flies in the face of what we have been taught back home, i.e animals have rights, we can change the world one person at a time, all bets are off over here. My coteacher told me that when she was a kid she came home from school one day to discover her dad had chopped up the family pooch and had him boiling in a pot. I recently went to a miniature zoo where there was a cute little snow monkey, the poor thing was in a tiny cage, nothing to stimulate it at all, all it did was take food from the kids (choco pies, candy) and look distraught. The kids and adults thought it was a great hoot. This country is well behind the times in many many respects, attitudes towards animals being just one.

[Demophobe]

Wow. That really hurts, huh?

I was driving home on the highway last year and passed a dog laying on the yellow line between lanes. As I passed I saw it's ears twitching...it was still alive!

I pulled a u-turn and parked off the side of the highway, put on some thick gloves, got a towel from the trunk and stopped traffic both ways carefully dragging this mutt to the side of the road.

Some Koreans (the ones who hit it) thankfully stopped, but were standing on the side of the highway just looking at the dog. After I pulled it to the roadside and covered it with a towel I saw that it's foot was bleeding pretty bad and it was coughing up some blood.

I called 911 and asked for a vet (it was on the highway in the country) to come and do somethng. I honestly didn't think anyone would come all the way out there for a dog.

15 minutes later, the police arrived and a 911 vet ambulance. They put the dog on a little stretcher and took him away. The police were very helpful and kind, though they really weren't necessary.

This part is cheesy...

I got home and was pretty sad actually. I don't like to see any kind of violence, intentional or accident. I was standing on the balcony thinking and praying that the little mutt was ok, when, I kid you not, the clouds opened up in an otherwise completely grey, overcast sky right in front of me and glorious sunshine poured through for just a few minutes. I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures; it was really incredible.

I'm pretty sure the little guy died, but that sunshine was his goodbye and thanks.

I feel for you. At least the poor pooch is still around.

[Bramble]

Well, you should do something to help the poor dog. Make an excuse to leave work, and get him or her to a vet if it's not too late. Where are you? If you're in Seoul, there are some animal groups you could try contacting - I think www.lonelylifetime.com has links to their contact info. I really hope it's not too late.

[Bramble]

[R-Seoul]

[tzechuk]

[Qinella]

About 8 years ago I was driving on a fairly busy road in Florida when I saw a cargo van hit a a black labrador that had chosen an inopportune time to dart out into the road. The van had plenty of time and space to move, but the driver stayed the course. What happened was the front left leg of the dog flew off and the dog was repelled back to the curb. It limped around on three legs or a few seconds and then collapsed. Not a pretty sight.

[R-Seoul]

She couldn't see a big road burn on it's back but assumes it's there. Also it's pretty damn hard to not show a broken leg.

[Bramble]

[JeJuJitsu]

[rawiri]

If someone has gone to the effort to tie up the dog, it obviously has an owner, this owner is within his/her rights to treat the dog any way they choose, the kindest thing you could do for it is probably grab a brick and put it out of it's misery. FYI i had to go to that little "zoo" with my school, i had no choice in the matter. I live in a rural area, if i was to stop and try to save every abused animal i saw it would become a full time occupation. Have a look at the tone of this board, probably half of the stuff posted is in one way or another moaning about korea/koreans. get off your high horse.

[ajgeddes]

I feel for you here Lulu. During my first year here, I just happened to be lucky enough to live next door to a bosintang restaurant. Well, once in a while, when I was lucky enough, I was able to listen to them beat the hell out of a dog as they killed it. Luckily, I didn't have to listen to it everyday, but it was difficult. It usually lasted about 15-20 minutes (I think) for it to finally stop yelping. It also sucks to have that feeling of helplessness about it.

[Bramble]

[Demophobe]

People, there's no need to start clawing away at each other here.

I like to think that most folks do what they can when they can.

When you don't speak the language and are somewhat of a fresh face in Korea, it's no easy task to do somethng like approaching the owner and telling them what happened, calling an agency for assistance or even getting one's employer or Korean friend to take action on your behalf.

I sympathize with the OP. Probably they feel quite helpless and I have no doubt that if this happened in their country, they would have done more. Somethng tells me that the OPs story is not quite over yet. Sounds like they have a warm heart and will try to do something more.

It doesn't take a crusader to help when the opportunity presents itself.