Seoulscapade

Members of KARA campaigning for animal rights

Last Saturday afternoon, down by Seoul’s City Hall, members of Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) met for an afternoon’s campaigning. They turned up with paper-bag masks depicting the main group of land animals slaughtered for meat in Korea, including dogs. So, there were masks representing dogs, cows, chickens and pigs. The group also came with placards and ropes, which symbolized tethered subjugation and confinement, or perhaps a hanging noose, since dogs are hanged in Korea.

I was surprised at how few participants turned up. I was also surprised to see it was a women-only affair. Where were the men, I wondered? Well, I discovered that some of the male members had dropped their wives off and left. They apparently don’t like to be all that exposed, and I can understand that because when I saw the masks, I immediately thought, I don’t want to walk around with one of those things on.

It was a bit surreal in a way

This cowardly self-consciousness on my part only raised my admiration for them in seeing what they were prepared to do. They struck me as a tough, non-nonsense bunch of girls who could take anything dished out to them. They were not new to campaigning, and no doubt they had copped mockery and strange looks before and knew how to cope with it.

As a supporter of animal rights, I had turned up to met the organizers, join in and see what KARA was all about. As a newcomer, I had envisaged a large group of us marching off to some location where we would hear speeches, and with our spirits stirred, we’d loudly walk on into the heart of Myong-Dong. But it wasn’t like that. The rally was really only organized for a core group of campaigners. The only other people who showed were members of the press. They took photos and one of them conducted an interview on camera with a KARA organizer, as shown below.

Apart from them, as if on cue, a drunk also appeared and began heckling and raving on. Everyone ignored him, as he was of the harmless variety. Then he latched onto me, since he knew English and wanted to defend his thesis on how happy he was, and that made him forget that there were people standing nearby with animal masks on. I deflected any nuisance from the campaigners, but it took some time to shake him.

KARA organizer Sora Seo facing the camera.

What a courageous bunch of girls, I thought, and even more so once I learned where they were headed next. They had indeed planned to walk through the streets to Myong-Dong, but that would be later. It was going to rain and this called for a change of plans. After the press had left, they were apparently headed down into the subway, onto Green Line 2—for the next four hours!

My wife and I bailed. She was feeling tired, and I certainly wouldn’t have easily lasted another four hours traveling the subway, confined in carriages, a strange looking foreigner accompanying a bunch of girls with animal heads. It was around 3 pm or later, and the riot police were setting up, lining buses around Seoul Plaza, as you can see in the background. This was in preparation for a night of large-scale protests against the government for importing US beef. Although animal related, these protests had nothing to do with KARA’s cause, as they focused on human rather than animal welfare. We headed for home.

But I hope to support the group somehow at the next rally.

I have already offered my services to help with updating English side of the KARA website, which is found here. At the time of writing, it’s terribly out of date, some of the English is awkward, and the formatting in some parts of it is broken. They accepted my offer, and I’m going to get a new one up and running. That’s probably where I’ll be most useful.