Tory, the to-be first dog, will be adopted by the newly-elected President Moon Jae-in. [Aju News DB]
The campaign comes amid growing public awareness of the abandoned dogs following an election pledge by South Korea's new liberal President Moon Jae-in to adopt a mongrel dog named "Tory" which was brought to a private shelter in Seoul two years ago but failed to be adopted because he was an unhandsome mixed breed.
Of about 60,000 abandoned dogs kept in state and private shelters in 2015, only 32 percent found new homes with 22 percent put to mercy killing. More than 8,000 dogs are abandoned every year because they are ugly and mixed breed. Or their owners were inconsiderate in adopting pets without family consent.
In an effort to reduce the number of innocent dogs being killed in the streets or being put down at shelters, the Seoul city government has organized a joint walking campaign with civil groups that would last until October.
Participants are allowed to take dogs for a walk in designated parks and dog playgrounds. Through consultations with city officials, they can adopt dogs.
"Seoul aims to provide new life to both dogs and citizens through this campaign," said a city official, adding dogs participating in the walking campaign are all vaccinated and medically examined. Candidates for adoption are given free animal registration and neutralization surgery.
Adoption costs between 50,000 won (44 US dollars) to 100,000 won, which will be collected to raise a fund for abandoned dogs.
Since 2009, dog owners have been required to implant compulsory microchips to their canine friends to help track vaccination and ownership records. Government data showed that only 979,000, or half of total dogs, were implanted with chips.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
