North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, took a drastic measure: seizing all domestic dogs from his population. The reason, according to him, is to protect the country from capitalist “decadence”.
In addition, he says that keeping pets is a trend contaminated by bourgeois ideology. In North Korea, the low-income population only raises pigs and cattle while having pets, such as dogs, is a symbol of belonging to the upper class of the Asian country.
According to a source consulted by the South Korean media Chosun Ilbo, “the authorities have identified homes with companion dogs and are forcing them to surrender or confiscate them by force and leave them.”
Some animals are turned over to state zoos, but others have no better luck and are sold to local restaurants for human consumption, they claim and explain that it occurs due to the supposed food crisis that plagues the country due to coronavirus. Pet owners are “cursing Kim Jong-un behind his back,” but there is little they can do, the anonymous source revealed.
The ownership of pets in the country became popular when the World Festival of Youth and Students was organized in 1989. From that event the elite of Pyongyang began to boast of expensive lap dogs as a symbol of status.
For the regime, animal rights are one of the least important issues on its agenda.
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