Jesus Fucking Christ, this might be a new low for SBS's "Animal Farm" (동물농장).
Hat tip to Zen Kimchi. I say "might be" because of course I haven't seen every episode, but I do know that putting species together to see what they do is a common theme. This video shows a bear cub screaming and trying to run away from a pair of lion cubs, while the laugh track and "ooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo" go in the background. Later the put a monkey in the bear's habitat, and the panelists laugh as the bear falls down trying to escape. On what fucking planet are these people put in charge of animals?
You know, I reckon that stuff like this---the numerous, numerous videos on Youtube of Korean animal abuse---and anecdotes expats share of mistreated cats and dogs are more influential on Korea's image abroad than news of hanbok, rice cakes, and semiconductors. Go to hell.
33 comments:
I remember seeing that episode the week it was aired and was quite annoyed at what they did to the animals. It would be less of a problem if this was just some 'backyard' type operation but it is actually from the Everland zoo (one of the biggest and best in Korea I've been told). This mistreatment by trained (you would hope) handlers is appalling and the zoo, handlers and the TV show should all be punished.
Sometimes I have a feeling that Koreans lack a 'compassion gene' for everything that is not in their small little group: animals, strangers, foreigners. The callousness displayed by Koreans towards people/animals outside the group is sometimes quite staggering!
This doesn't surprise me in the least. Many of the Koreans that I've met are severely lacking in the empathy department (my co-teacher laughed when I showed her the video).
A related story. A week ago, a little after lunch, I caught 2 boys throwing around a live baby chick, soaked to the bone from the rain - desperately tweeting for it's mother - at my school,. Initially, I thought it was a wild chick that got washed out and had fallen from a nest or something and ordered them to put it back where they found it. However a little while later I heard another bout of tweeting and found a girl carrying around another chick (this one dry and very recognizable)in a plastic bag.
Totally incensed, I walked around my school to find the source of these chicks, and I came upon a country bumpkin selling them out of a truck at the front of the school. At least a hundred newly hatched chicks, still blind, some dead, in a big cardboard box in front of the truck. Sold in small blue plastic bags to my elementary school students for 500 won each.
I nearly lost my mind. I started yelling at the guy to get the fuck out. He wouldn't budge, so I went to my classroom, got my digital camera, came back, and started taking pictures of the guy and his business, all the while telling him to take it elsewhere. He got visibly annoyed, and tried to grab my camera, but finally relented, packed up and left. Not before no less than 5 kids and two parents tried to buy more chicks from the guy totally oblivious to my angry tirade.
So, like I said earlier, I've noticed very little empathy towards animals here. Animals are still toys or accessories to even most pet owners here. And given that attitude, I don't find this TV show the least surprising. They know their audience and they're catering to it.
Holy Fuck. Jesus Christ. I couldn't finish watching this video. This is terrible. What kind of fucking idiots do this to animals? Fucking morons.
In the future, if I am ever tempted to gloss over this shitty country and paint it nice and pretty in my memory, I will only have to think about how Koreans treat animals, and then I will soon remember how horrible these people are.
I remember one of these episodes years ago that had one batty old lady who lived in an apartment in Seoul with...a Shetland pony.
As if they wasn't weird enough, they then showed another woman who lived in 25 pyong with...a deer. It jumped up and kicked her in the face. I was glad.
Have you ever been to Seoul Land in Gwacheon? People are throwing oranges, cookies and chips to the brown bears all day long. I once asked a student why they did that. He told me that he thought they were helping.
Or how about the guy who had a monkey with a shaved face that wore overalls and did tricks at the entrance to Insadong.
I am no vegetarian but that video was sickening.
Good lesson:
What will happen when you put someone different with a "uri" group?
I think that actually might be at the heart of it. They see these inter-species horrorshows as representative of human behaviour and instructive because they reinforce their deep-seated belief that cultures are like species and should not mix.
Agreed, Bob!
The coldness and cruelty towards animals in this country are appalling.
I'm afraid it seems to be a cultural trait.
I was in a car with a Korean family a couple of weeks back and the father hit a little girl on her bike and crushed her back wheel (she was ok; neither were looking where they were going or for any hazards left or right)
Anyway, upon hitting the girl, the guy and his daughter clearly didn't give a shit that they'd knocked this little girl off her bike because 'it was her fault.'
The girl was about 8 years old for Christ's sake.
A discussion I'll never forget was with one of my Korean co-workers, concerning dogs. I kept trying to explain that what bothered me was not the eating of dogs, but the torturing of them just prior to their deaths (so as to maximize the adrenalin in dog soup, believed to be a "natural" viagra for ajosshis).
Even with the help of various dictionaries, I just wasn't getting her to understand the concept of torture. After a while, I realized the problem wasn't with the meaning of the word "torture". Rather, it was the complete lack of any compassion on her part for other living creatures.
She, on the other hand, couldn't understand why I was getting riled up over dogs. Dogs! Who cares? It was an eye-opening experience for me.
I believe it was Mohandas Gandhi that said, "The greatness of a nation and it's moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Then again, Gandhi was just a brown guy who didn't wear underwear from a dirty country without four seasons or a moon.
Is that caretaker still working in that zoo? Pure country branding!
This episode wasn't about scarying the crap out Gomgil (the bear cub), and getting a laugh out of it. Gomgil didn't have mother bear's traing and the zoo keeper was trying to train Gomgil how to react in the presence of other animals. Gomgil wasn't put into a den of adult lions. The lion cubs were only 1 month older than Gomgil. And the zoo keeper was present throughout to control the encounter. There is another episode where the zoo keepers teach Gomgil how to swim.
I guess there could be a debate on whether or not the approach was/can be effective. But this certainly wasn't to torture the baby bear and I'm pretty sure the zoo keepers know what they're doing. After all, aren't they the professionals in that field?
Tokyou,
It was exactly about that: GETTING A LAUGH. Training a bear to meet a lion? Were in the world do they live together?
Tokyou,
Why are they planning on getting the cub used to interacting with tigers and monkeys? Are they planning on letting him loose in Africa? Can you show me similar 'professionals' from other countries that do the same thing?
And the producers of the show certainly made sure their audience got a good laugh at the terrorized bear. I've seen plenty of these kinds of shows in Korea, and ALL of them are based on the 'look on funny it is to terrorize these animals' theme.
My final thought on this:
I guess this is a publicity stunt. The (whatever corporation running this) zoo trys to get more visitors.
I have seen this: in Spain. People kill bulls to atract visitors. And it works! (talking about country branding, search for Pamplona, Hemingway, Iruña, and so on in Google).
From MY point of view: it sucks!
It has nothing to do about training an animal. It has to do about audience. It sucks!
"Sometimes I have a feeling that Koreans lack a 'compassion gene' for everything that is not in their small little group"
I heartily agree, Mark!
@ Buzubuzu. I understand your horror at those baby chicks being sold to kids. When a kid bought several to my school in a plastic bag, I made a cardboard box for them, fed them and tried to get the kids to give them names. The kids found my behaviour so weird, but they did get into it.
I don't think it is a gene that gives many Korean people an obvious lack of compassion. It's not genetics. It's cultural learning.
But the saddest thing is that those baby chicks were probably bought from a chicken farm. they would all have been the male chickens that normally would get slaughtered. In our countries we are not allowed to see what happens because of "corporate sensitivity". Journalists are not allowed inside, few pictures make it out. But some do. I urge you to watch this snippet of the film Baraka.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsIu2gO-V1Y
Right, and probably everybody on this thread happily eats factory-farmed meat and eggs. You just prefer cruelty not to be right in front of you.
I think, Mr. Schwartzman, the main topic discussed here is getting a good laugh watching an animal suffer. It's sick, in Korea or any place else.
Aye, Nathan, truth be told I really ought to become vegetarian, and I give you a lot of credit for being able to do it in Korea. Meat tastes good, to me, but I feel bad for eating it and killing living things in order to survive. But that's neither here nor there in this conversation.
Dave, when I said 'compassion gene' I was, of course, speaking metaphorically not literally. But the thrust of my argument still stands: Korea is a society where consideration and compassion for others (especially those outside the group) are severely lacking.
I think Nathan makes a good point.
Jesus people, have you guys actually understand Korean language? This animal farm is popular family TV show in Korea, and this bear cub lost his mother, so the zoo keeper is trying to train him what do avoid, what to accepts etc.. last time they teach him how to defend himself from attack, train him to swim and how to avoid certain food etc.. These zoo keepers are doing fine job btw, little scarily experience with lion cubs won't kill this bear cub. So this bear knows lions are scary mammal, just little too sensitive after the awful experience. Korean zoo keepers are doing good job on training this bear cub.
Benon:
Don't be condescending. I know the object of the TV show isn't to drive a bear crazy, and I know what the zookeeper was talking about. Regardless of her intention, it's cruel for the spectators to get a laugh out of tormenting an animal like this, and you really have to wonder why the zookeeper would want to condition the animal this way.
Training a bear to meet a lion? Where in the world do they live together?
India. (Panthera leo persica and Melursus ursinus in Gujarat State)
"Right, and probably everybody on this thread happily eats factory-farmed meat and eggs. You just prefer cruelty not to be right in front of you."
Until I joined this thread. One great thing about repatriating back to North America, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand is the availability of meat from pastured animals raised and slaughtered humanely. I buy my meat and eggs directly from the farmers who raise the animals. Sadly, domestic pastured meat is not available in Korea although judging by the small, open-air barns I saw in the Korean countryside, Korean livestock live in more humane conditions than North American factory farm animals.
Korean dogmeat lovers might be interested to know that Purdue University researchers found that the tenderest meat comes from animals raised and slaughtered humanely. Stress from neglectful living conditions and stress from slaughter cause the pH of the animal's meat to go too high or too low, toughening the meat.
Vegetarianism is not humane or ecological. We are part of the food chain and there is nothing immoral about consuming animals that were well-treated. Some landforms are not well-suited to crop-raising. Grazing ruminant animals on these lands is much better for the environment than acres and acres of grains.
The meat thing raises an interesting point. There are certain necessary evils. Slaughtering cows, for example. We can make it as humane as possible but at the end of the day if we want to enjoy certain pleasures in life like steak or bacon, some pigs gotta die. (Hell, even if we farmed veggies, wild mice would get run over by tractors, birds would build nests in grain threshers and then wake up to a big surprise one morning, etc.)
That said, what would it say about our culture if we started selling tickets to a slaughter house or turned it into a reality show where the entertainment factor was seeing cows get it in the head? Every time a cow dropped we'd turn up the laugh track...
So yeah, zoos, slaughter houses, hospitals for burn victims, have to do stuff that is painful and scary but of some benefit. But we don't consider it light sunday morning entertainment.
sonagi - "Vegetarianism is not humane or ecological. We are part of the food chain and there is nothing immoral about consuming animals that were well-treated." So vegetarianism is inhumane and environmentally unsound? I'll grant you an omnivore who eats locally can have a smaller environmental footprint than a vegetarian obsessed with exotic fruit and store bought faux meats.
"Some landforms are not well-suited to crop-raising. Grazing ruminant animals on these lands is much better for the environment than acres and acres of grains." If you're buying all your meat local, yes. If you're buying it at a grocery store, they most likely started life on a ranch and ended up in a feedlot (CAFO, industrial farming). A ridiculous amount of grain/water/oil goes into the creation of grocery store meat, you can look it up. Also, I've lived in ranching country - ranching is, most often (thought not always), an environmental tragedy - the feces and weeds alone are sufficient argument against large ranches.
I'm not a militant vegetarian, I'm just sayin'.
I couldn't watch the whole video. However, zoos are often tragic all over the world (german zoos acquiring gorillas from the wild, for instance, or american zoos which give elephants so little space that the develop psychological issues). Also, consider circuses, of which main attractions are mistreated lions and elephants. I'm not saying this isn't horrible, or that the korean culture doesn't facilitate the mistreatment of animals. I just think it's incredible how many expats, who never think of animal rights issues back home, suddenly become enraged when they see mistreated animals abroad.
"So vegetarianism is inhumane and environmentally unsound?"
Environmentally unsound, YES, because some land is better suited to grazing livestock than to growing crops. Sustainable farming makes optimal use of land resources.
Veganism is humane in that it does not require the killing of animals, but lacto-oval vegetarianism is no more humane than ominvorism. The dairy industry and the beef industry exist hand in hand. Half of calves born to dairy cows are males destined for the slaughterhouse, and the dairy cows themselves are slaughtered when they no longer yield much milk. Likewise, egg-laying chickens eventually wind up either in a soup pot or cut up into bits.
"If you're buying all your meat local, yes. If you're buying it at a grocery store, they most likely started life on a ranch and ended up in a feedlot (CAFO, industrial farming). A ridiculous amount of grain/water/oil goes into the creation of grocery store meat, you can look it up. "
I don't need to look it up. In my earlier comment, I stated that I bought locally pastured meats and criticized US factory farm practices by noting that livestock on small Korean farms were treated more humanely. Even without the direct reference to factory farms, one could infer from my locavorism that I am well aware of the nature of factory farming.
lacto-oval - lacto-ovo
Was past my bedtime when I wrote that.
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