By Michael Breen
The government last week admitted that authorities struggling to stem the spread of foot-and-mouth disease had buried animals alive.
By the beginning of this week, almost 2 million pigs and cows had been slaughtered and ``in some regions, according to an unnamed official quoted in this newspaper, by methods that were both illegal and unacceptably cruel.
Animal rights activists claim that in fact most of the 1.8 million pigs culled to date have been dropped into pits and buried alive.
``The deafening squealing sound, mother pigs struggling to protect their piglets in the holes ― it's so horrible, nightmarish,’’ said Lee Won-bak, president of the Korea Association for Animal Protection, who claimed to have witnessed several culling operations.
How, anyone reading this must wonder, can civilized people be so cruel?
Now consider that question from the perspective of the local officials responsible for dealing with the disease in each area. Foot-and-mouth spreads rapidly by contact, by mud on vehicles, even by airborne dust particles. By cruel irony this time, winter cold and darkness keep the virus alive.
Although from the outbreak on Nov. 29 to this Monday only 120 animals had tested positive, the target for culling was 2 million with the remaining 13.2 million cattle and pigs to be vaccinated. In certain areas in the last few weeks, then, officials had to kill hundreds of animals a day. Cattle were injected with a potion and then buried. Injecting all the pigs, however, was not so easy. They required larger doses and, anyway, there were so many that it was not possible to meet quotas.
In figuring their course of action, officials were mindful that Korean law and the guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, where Korea is a member, which say that animals must be killed humanely before they are buried.
You can see the dilemma. Which law does a government official follow ― the actual law or what his boss tells him? How about, is this decision influenced by the knowledge that everyone is doing it? And what of the greater consequences, if, because of his failure to act, the disease spreads?
There's the answer to the question of how civilized people could act with cruelty. In making pragmatic sense, it appeared the lesser evil.
But actually it was not. The law does not exist because the World Organization for Animal Health foisted it upon us. It exists because those of us who live here do not wish to be part of a society that condones brutality to animals. The law is there to make sure that those who deal with animals don't get tempted by this type of situation to ignore those standards.
Yes, we eat animal meat. But we insist that they be cared for and ultimately slaughtered in as humane a manner as possible. Their suffering must be minimal.
Damage to that principle cannot be justified by the avoidance of damage to business.
This, I admit, may seem rather theoretical in the face of an epidemic. So, how about this one: the pig torturers should be arrested.
The only reason they acted in this way, rather than down tools and force the strategists to re-think the need for the extensive cull, or come up with more personnel and sufficient amounts of poison, was because they were not afraid of the law. Next time they should be.
Michael Breen is an author, former foreign correspondent and the chairman of Insight Communications, a public relations consulting company. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.
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