Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Seoul steps up fight against feral dogs amid growing population
This photo provided by the Jeju Municipal Police shows a feral dog captured in a cage trap, April 3, 2023, following reports that wild dogs attacked and killed cows at a farm in Jeju City, Jeju Island. Korea Times file
By Lee Hae-rin
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said, Tuesday, it will set out to capture feral dogs in the coming weeks amid a growing number of such animals roaming the streets and mountains, thereby posing safety concerns to residents and hikers.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, a team which will include members with veterinary qualifications and who can administer tranquilizers, will be deployed in February and March across nine districts within the vicinity of Mounts Gwanak and Bukhan, estimated to be inhabited by over 200 feral dogs.
The metropolitan and district governments have regularly captured reported animals within their administrative capacity for years, but failed to control their population as the dogs — mostly abandoned by their owners — learned to avoid and escape traps set by local authorities.
In response, the city saw growing public concern over safety issues related to wild and stray dogs.
The number of civil complaints on potential dangers posed by feral dogs nearly quadrupled from 197 in 2019 to 749 in 2021 and stood at 471 last year. Also, 202 dogs were captured last year, up from 121 in 2019.
Several other regions like Busan and Jeju have also seen increasing numbers of feral dogs and reports of dog attacks. Taean County of South Chungcheong Province formed a professional dog-catching team, while Ganghwa County of Incheon selected a private company to deal with them.
The city government will set some 120 traps in mountainous areas and capture as many dogs as possible using tranquilizers before April, when springtime picnickers are expected to visit mountains for outdoor activities.
Although feral animals are often wary of people and tend to stay away from them, they may attack humans or other animals in an encounter if they feel threatened.
Thus, the city government advised people to refrain from approaching traps or free-roaming dogs and report them to local authorities if they see a trapped animal. Freeing or feeding them could disturb the local ecosystem and make it more difficult to re-capture the released animal, the city government noted.
Once captured, feral dogs are classified as “abandoned animals” and sent to local animal shelters, where they are put up for adoption for a maximum of 20 days.
Although some are provided with socialization training, the vast majority are euthanized after the period as their wild nature cannot be changed in such a short time.
“We ask for active cooperation from the public during the planned capture period,” a senior city official in charge of the project said.
“Adult dogs with a strong wild nature will be euthanized if they are not adopted, so we hope many people take interest in adopting them,” she added.