Animals Die As A Result Of Animal Park Closures
Fearing abuse or maltreatment of animals, the animal rights group, Korean Animal Welfare Association (KAWA) visited Zooloo Lala on August 26th. According to the group, because the indoor park housed hundreds of exotic animals, they worried that terrible abuse could be meted out to those rare animals that were infirm or unsalable.
During the visit, the group found animal corpses wrapped in plastic bags and dumped inside a waste basket on the ground floor. In all there were 26 corpses of 17 different species and, among them, 15 were on the international endangered list, according to the National Institute of Biological Resource's analysis.
Animal corpses found at Zooloo Lala's closed site
In South Korea, because regulations for setting up and maintaining a zoo or animal park are close to non-existent, many exotic animals end up dying needlessly. Last June, about 20 animals came close to dying when the owner of "Incheon's Hummy & Friends" was unable to pay the electricity bill and the power to all the aquariums was almost cut off. The operation, behind in electricity bill payments by 40,000,000 won (more than $35,000), lasted until June only thanks to the power company's generosity, but on June 11, all the power was slated to be cut. Before the catastrophe could happen, however, the city of Incheon's JoongGu Economic/Agricultural desk's Byung-ho Jeon and his colleagues managed, after much effort, to relocate the animals to safety. What's worrying is that there is still no law or regulation to prevent such lax management on the part of animal facility operators.
Animals that died at "Hummy & Friends Park."
When KAWA called 911 for assistance, the police refused to help, saying that even if there was evidence of abuse inside the facility, they could not go inside without a warrant. What's more, though there were more than 10 officials at the site from various government entities such as the city of ChangWon, SungSan District Office, NakDong River Area Environmental Office, 911 police unit, ChangWon Police Department, Special Police to Environmental Ministry, not one attempted to begin an investigation.
KAWA is doing its best to help pass a bill regarding animal parks before the year ends. Once this year is over, it will become impossible for the subject to be taken up again by the 19th Congress. If it gets pushed to the next Congress, the whole effort gets scrapped and everything has to be shelved until the 20th Congress picks it up again, if ever.
The above was translated from a Korean article on Huff Post Korea.