I’m the author of this piece, and I live in Korea. Clearly, somewhere along the line you’ve seen some Korean people acting differently than you find acceptable. However, because you personally may not find it acceptable doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. More importantly, seeing one or several people acting in a certain way doesn’t mean that everyone in that country behaves similarly.

It is true that a certain breed of dog is used for meat in Korea. It’s also true that some people (myself included) view the method of killing these dogs as inhumane. However, this practice is fading. I know some Koreans who are as appalled at Canada’s seal hunting as some Canadians (and Americans) are at the vanishing tradition of dog meat. Koreans do not eat cats.

I also find that pets tend seem to be treated differently in Korea than they are in North America. The reason for this, according to one very well traveled and well educated Korean acquaintance of mine, is that pets are a relatively new phenomenon in South Korea. It’s only in recent decades that the country’s been wealthy enough to support them. Now that the country’s pretty wealthy, lots of people own dogs. Hamsters are also common and there are some fish, birds, a few cats and even some hedgehogs. Similar to the US, many little kids beg their parents for pet dogs. However, in Korea, dogs tend to live in small dog houses in front of the house. Dogs here tend not to get as much social interaction with people and dog walking is uncommon.

On one of your other points, the forests in Korea are plentiful as are the urban parks. For instance, the park behind my house, though very small, has abundant birds, insects, small mammals, some reptiles and even has occasional large mammals like deer.

Koreans do not eat anything that crawls or flies. There are two species of insect eaten in Korea: grasshoppers and silk worms. But think of the weird things eaten in Europe and North America: snails, frog legs and mouldy, curdled milk (ie. the ‘finer’ cheeses we westerners love).