'Rejected 15 times': Pet owners struggle to find housing in Korea

A volunteer plays with a dog awaiting adoption at Banryeomaru Hwaseong in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, March 23, International Puppy Day. Yonhap

Kang, 42, who cares for Duk-bae, a 1-year-old cat, said she and her spouse were rejected 15 times over three weeks while trying to find a new rental home.

Some landlords flatly refused tenants with pets. Others demanded higher rent if animals were involved. When one real estate agent heard that Kang also had two other 5-year-old cats, the response was immediate: “That’s too many. Do you really need to keep that many animals?”

It was not as though the couple were searching for a tiny one-room apartment, nor did they have children. They were prepared to pay more than 1 million won (about $670) in monthly rent.

Kang, worried that any compromise in the home’s conditions could make one of the cats ill, poured enormous effort into finding a suitable place. By the time she finally did, she was so exhausted that she spent days sick in bed.

In Korea, owning a pet is no longer something that draws surprise. More than 15 percent of all households, or about 3.13 million, now have a pet. But pet owners say the reality of raising one remains far from easy.

Housing emerged as an immediate difficulty, with four in ten pet owners like Kang saying they worried they would not be able to secure housing where they could live with their animals.

Other burdens, including conflicts with neighbors and the financial costs of pet ownership, also fall squarely on owners. And while many say policy support is urgently needed, they are confronted with a reality in which even basic statistics remain patchy.

Hankookilbo obtained and analyzed the results of a survey conducted by a research team led by Professor Chun Myung-sun of Seoul National University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Hankook Research on pet ownership conditions among 2,002 pet owners.

Rather than relying on a conventional individual-based survey, the study conducted an in-depth interview with one primary caregiver in each household about their perceptions of raising a pet. It was the first survey to simultaneously examine a broad range of difficulties tied to pet ownership, including psychological stress, conflict with neighbors and the burden of housing and medical expenses.

Hankook Ilbo also separately interviewed eight pet owners about the real-life difficulties they face and the policy support they believe is needed.

Cat trees are on sale at a booth during the second International Cat Industry Expo at Coes in southern Seoul on Jan. 19, 2018. Yonhap

Pet owners in rentals left scrambling each moving season

Some 32 percent of the respondents said they live in either monthly rentals or jeonse, Korea’s lump-sum deposit lease system. Among them, 46.3 percent said they expected to face difficulties finding a new home where they could live with their pet once their current lease ends.

Even if a landlord allows pets, whether the home offers a proper environment for raising one is a separate issue. For cat owners, for example, there needs to be enough space for items such as cat trees and litter boxes, as well as double-windowed structures that allow cats to look outside while preventing them from escaping.

Pet owners also appeared concerned about the risks of keeping a pet, with 32.9 percent of respondents saying they feared landlords might seek compensation at the end of the lease because they had kept an animal in the home.

“I worry that the smell of urine and feces might seep into the jeonse apartment,” said a married couple in their 30s surnamed Shin, who are raising an elderly dog.

Some tenants appeared to be raising pets in secret after repeatedly encountering landlords who refused to allow animals. One in five pet owners living in rented housing responded they live in fear of being caught with a pet.

Jo, a 27-year-old who lives alone in a one-room apartment, said every monthly lease agreement he came across included a clause stating that the contract would be terminated if he brought in a pet. With little choice, he signed the lease anyway and later took in a cat that became part of his family three years ago.

He then raised the cat in secret, but earlier this year, he was ultimately forced to send her to live at his parents’ home.

“For young people already grappling with housing instability, pets can amplify the problem,” said Chun, who designed the survey.

Duk-bae, a cat owned by Kang So-wol, is seen in this photo provided by Kang.

Pet owners worn down by neighbor pressure and the demands of pet care

Nearly half of the respondents said they live in apartments, meaning they also had to worry about friction with neighbors. About one in five, or 18.2 percent, said they had gotten into disputes with neighbors because of their pets.

The main causes were indoor barking at 46.7 percent, outdoor barking at 32.1 percent. They were followed by threatening behavior such as lunging or biting at 28.6 percent and defecation-related issues at 25.3 percent.

The Shins said they were once startled to find a note on their front door reading, “Your dog barking at night is too loud.”

The problem is compounded by the lack of any clear-cut solution to such conflicts. In a multiple-response question posed to pet owners who said they had experienced disputes, 63.4 percent said they responded by apologizing to neighbors. Another 26.7 percent said they tried to address the issue through training or by improving their pets’ daily habits, while 21.4 percent said they offered financial compensation.

One third of the respondents, however, said they either ended up doing nothing, moved to a different location or sent their pet somewhere else.

A volunteer grooms a dog awaiting adoption at Banryeomaru Hwaseong in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, March 23, International Puppy Day. Yonhap

Pet owners were also asked about the difficulties they face in raising their animals. For the largest share, the biggest challenge was not being able to leave the house unattended, with 52.7 percent citing it as their top concern. Hygiene-related issues such as fur and pet waste followed at 13.7 percent, while dealing with illness and other health problems followed at 8.8 percent.

Kim Gi-yang, 30, who raises two cats, said she was hospitalized for a week last summer but had to cut her stay short because her cats refused to eat when her friend tried to feed them.

“I learned that pets can get sick, but owners can’t,” she said.

Lee, center, who lives in Jeju, poses with family members while holding their pet cat in this photo provided by Lee.

Need for pre-adoption education on the responsibilities of pet ownership

The survey also suggested things might have been different if owners had known in advance about the difficulties of raising pets. An overwhelming 82.2 percent of respondents said a mandatory pet ownership course is needed.

As for the type of education they wanted, basic information on pet health and disease management ranked highest at 32.8 percent, followed by guidance on handling problematic behavior at 17.4 percent and information on relevant laws and policies at 16.6 percent.

“I realized my cats had behavioral issues and habits that I should have corrected sooner, because I brought them without knowing much,” said Lee, 50, who lives on Jeju Island and raises two cats.

“It was only then that I began turning to books and the internet,” he added wistfully.

However, Chun was cautious about qualification screening, voicing concern that it could reduce the relationship between humans and pets to something overly standardized. He also warned that it could effectively bar low-income people from owning pets altogether.

Instead, he called for existing pet ownership courses run by regional governments to be strengthened so they can play a more meaningful role.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok delivers opening remarks at a meeting of the Companion Animal Policy Committee at Government Complex Seoul, March 30. Newsis

Government takes first step toward pet policy, with calls to begin by collecting data

The presidential office has recently begun paying greater attention to pet-related policies. Under President Lee Jae Myung’s direction, a Companion Animal Policy Committee was launched under the prime minister's office.

“It would be best to begin by looking at the issues faced by families and individuals who live with, care for and raise companion animals.” said Prime Minister Kim Min-seok at the committee's first meeting on March 30.

Chun, meanwhile, said the first step toward meaningful policymaking should be a national-level research project aimed at gathering data on pet-owning households.

A veterinarian and guardian of four cats himself, he also urged owners to let go of what he described as the obsession with raising pets “too well.”

“When pet owners come to me for counseling, I tell them, ‘It’s okay. It’s normal. Dogs bark,’” he said. “In other words, don’t impose idealized standards. Isn’t an inclusive attitude toward the vulnerabilities of companion animals also a hallmark of a good society?”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.