By Yi Whan-woo
An axe-wielding Buddhist monk killed a dog for barking at night, and high school girls dissecting abandoned animals for their biology class have stirred up controversy concerning animal cruelty.
Animal advocates are calling for legal action on animal abuse after a civic group, the Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, posted a video clip and photos of the two cases on its website.
“These incidents are totally unacceptable,” said Park So-yeon, a member of the group. “A monk who should have loved and cared for life by the order of Buddha took a life and this is also because we don’t have a strong law-enforcement system against those treating animals cruelly.”
“In the case of the high school girls, it’s questionable why they have to abuse abandoned animals even if it’s for educational purposes.”
The monk at Choenyon Temple in Busan killed the dog on Dec. 11 last year. It was captured by a surveillance camera and the footage was submitted to the civic group by an unidentified person.
The Buddhist monk used an axe to kill the five-month old dog for barking at night. A photo of the dead animal shows a severe head wound.
The dog’s owner, a man in his 70s, suffers from trauma after losing his pet in this manner.
“The man lives alone and raised the dog named General as if it were his biological son, and he now has symptoms of depression,” Park said.
The group and other animal lovers have called for a thorough investigation by police, despite not much progress in apprehending the suspect. The animal advocates claim that the police deem the case “mere damage of private property” rather than taking a hard-line stance on animal cruelty. They urge investigators to take the case more seriously this time.
Morality in the Buddhism circle is also under question coupled with a recent video clip that reveals monks gambling, drinking and smoking in a hotel room.
The animal-rights activists also called for appropriate measures against animal abuse during a biology class at a girls’ high school in Incheon. The civic group showed photos of the students conducting experiments on dead cats, dogs, and rabbits that had been abandoned by their owners.
A girl puts a tube into a dog’s lung and blows to see if the lung expands, while another student pulls out a uterus from another dog.
The name of the school was not made public. Teachers explained the experiment was to observe what mammals’ internal organs look like and how they function. The animal advocates consider the educational program to be “irrational and unnecessary.”
“Even veterinary students at universities only do such thorough dissection when they have to, and we wonder why the school has to educate the girls in that way,” Park said. “We regard such education will make teenage girls, who are mentally immature, become numb to animal abuse as they grow up.”
The group lodged a complaint with the Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education that oversees the school.
A school official said that “the education is for a good cause,” while admitting the school will reconsider its education program.