The number of households that have companion animals was 5.74 million among 1.952 billion in Korea in 2017, and it has increased drastically since 2010. Many people are raising animals with affection; however, they sometimes can’t take care of their animals. For these situations, animal care services have prospered. As a result, in Korea, companion animal hotels and pet sitter services have flourished.
  Companion animal hotels are kennels for animals, and they offer accommodations and food to animals. They are useful to people who are away for long periods of time. Still, many incidents happen as the hotels have been unregulated by laws and staffs have been careless. Due to improper care, laws for the monitoring those hotels were enacted by the government in 2017.
  Pet sitters provide services for taking care of companion animals. Pet sitters are popular substitutes for the hotels, which are expensive and difficult to reserve during the peak season. However, pet sitters also have problems because they have been unregulated by laws and their standards of qualifications haven’t been defined.
  Regarding animal care services, the CBT interviewed CBNU students who take care of animals. Bae Yun-hui (’19, Dept. of Mathematics, Information, and Statistics) said, “I think animal care services are necessary. If my cats are left at home alone, I am very nervous. However, I am reluctant to use them due to some bad cases.” Im Ji-yeung (’17, Major of Food Science and Biotechnology) said, “I think these services are good. Still, as companion animals are considered property by law, the punishments of those responsible for accidents are too weak. Therefore, I don’t want to leave my cats in these places yet.”
  There are several reasons why companion animal services have become more popular. First of all, single households and DINKs (Double Income, No Kids), which is a couple with two incomes and no children, have increased. They often raise companion animals instead of starting families, which are burdensome psychologically and financially. Also, they tend to consider their animals as family members. According to KB Financial Group’s research in 2018, 85.6% of households that raise animals in Korea agree that ‘Companion animals are family’.
  Secondly, the increase of media exposure about animals has caused an increase in companion animals. Animal TV shows have been popular for a while, and the number of shows related to animals has continually increased. Also, on Instagram, some accounts are mainly posts of animal photos, and on Youtube, some accounts focus only on animals. Among them, Creamheroes is a famous Youtube account in Korea on which many cats appear. The number of subscribers is about 3 million, which shows many people are taking an interest in cute animals. Many people have been affected by the media and want to live with animals.
  However, other problems related to companion animals have also arisen. In 2017, a famous entertainer’s dog attacked a woman and she died. After that incident, many people have demanded that dogs must wear muzzles and must be leashed. Also, there is the problem where some thoughtless people don’t pick up their animal’s poop, and some residents in multi-family housing have complained about animal noises.
  About these problems, Yoon Na-ri, a cofounder and activist of Animal Liberation Wave, which is an animal rights group, said, “A lot of problems are related to abandonment or abuse. However, I think the underlying cause is the overbreeding of animals. As a result, people buy them easily even if they aren’t prepared for the duties of taking care of an animal. Thus, many animals have been abused or have suffered from ill treatment like muzzles. Also, the regulations related to animals are too weak. For these problems, the animal activist groups have initiated campaigns; however, they have limits as the groups are private organizations. I think the government has to have stronger regulations about the breeding of companion animals and to punish people who hurt animals more heavily. Moreover, it is better to provide fundamental education to people who adopt animals. With better regulations and education, a better culture of companion animals will be established, which will lead to a decrease in most of the problems related to companion animals.
  Many people have chosen to live with companion animals. While most of them have respected and accepted their animals as family, others have regarded the animals as   substitutes for humans and taken advantage of them to alleviate their own loneliness. Eventually, they abandon the animals for personal reasons. People must realize that animals are not objects. They deserve to live as happily as we do.

By Lee So-yoon
sy39@cbnu.ac.kr