A heartbreak, sad, true story

From a man in Seoul, an 'ordinary' citizen, not a dogmeat eater but not involved in animal welfare either. An ordinary man remembering a day he has not forgotten.

I am barely turning 30 now and I remember back to the days when I was one of the Seoul neighborhood kids. Back in those days, we could hear the birds chirping away, we could hear the beetles making loud buzzing noises in the summer, and we could go hiking up themountains to drink cool clear fresh mountain water. In those days, in our neighborhoods, like thousands of neighbors in Seoul, neighborhood dogs ran about freely. Our neighborhood kids often played soccer in the streets (there were no cars around in neighborhood streets).

There were lots of dogs around in our neighborhood at that time. (there were lots of big healthy looking dogs then, not like now with the small mangy looking creatures you often see ). Us kids loved this particular black sheep dog which we called Gumdori. Gumdori protected us from other neighborhood gangs of kids who often bullied us with their mean barking dogs. Gumdori was our mascot, our pet, our loving dog. We loved him to death. Gumdori would always come to us whenever we had snacks with those sad begging eyes. Then we wouldn't have a choice but to give him our snacks.

I remember the day when an old man came to our neighbor with a push wagon. He tied up Gumdori and began to drag him onto his gurooma. A kid shouted, "Look! Someone's taking our Gumdori away!". We all rushed to the scene and saw Gumdori whimpering, being dragged by the rope around his neck. The kid who owned Gumdori sobbed that his mother had sold Gumdori to the man, and the man was taking him away. We all cried "Gumdori! Gumdori!" while Gumdori, whimpering, was forced onto the wagon. The man tied Gumdori up, like it was some kind of a sack of rice and pushed off. All the heartbroken kids cried and began to follow the man, hoping against hope that maybe the man would let Gumdori go.

A few miles off, as we all watched, the man stopped at a small creek which probably was a sewage, then dragged Gumdori out of the wagon. He then took the rope around Gumdori's neck and lifted the dog with the rope, effectively hanging him to death. The whimpering sound was just horrible. We all watched in horror, as the man then took out a blow torch and then torched all the beautiful long fur. Gumdori was no more. Us kids all witnessed it all and we mourned for Gumdori as we walked home. We all mourned that Gumdori will now soon be someone's meal, parts of him sitting in someone's stomach.

Are we surprised when we are so cruel to people when we are so cruel to animals? All those who enjoy dogs, should be forced to watch how they are being killed.