A woman in her twenties has been charged with abusing and throwing her neighbour’s cat off the balcony of her 10th floor apartment. The bereaved owner had left the window open on the night of the incident and found the cat missing the next day. He confronted the woman and her boyfriend after finding a CCTV footage of her beating up his cat in the lift lobby between 3 and 4 a.m.
She denied all knowledge of the whereabouts of the cat, saying she did beat it up but she was drunk and couldn’t remember. The owner put the CCTV clip on the animal lovers website in Korea which went viral making it the number one news item, and had everyone condemning the woman (some, to the same fate). The owner found the dead body of the badly beaten cat in the flowerbed where it had been moved to by a witness. However, when she was confronted she swore and assaulted the owner and the policeman, and eventually admitted that she did throw it off the balcony when she was charged and brought in for questioning.
The owner then was threatened again by the same woman in the lift, and this has been caught on the CCTV.
The government is now considering increasing the fines and jailtime in the enforcement of the animal cruelty laws.
개정안은 현행법에서 척추동물로 규정하고 있는 동불의 범위를 확대하고, 동물학대에 대한 벌칙을 500만원 이하의 벌금에서 1년 이하 징역이나 1000만원 이하의 벌금으로 강화하는 내용을 담고있다. 상습범에 대해선 가중처벌할 수 있다.
또 동물을 학대하는 사진과 동영상을 인터넷에 공개할 경우 100만원 이하의 벌금형에 처하도록 하고, 법원으로 하여금 동물을 학대하는 주인에 대한 소유권을 빼앗을 수도 있게했다
What is so confounding about the case is that in the clip the cat is shown to be meek enough not to retaliate and run away even when it is thrown about by the woman. Indeed what tugged at the heart string of many was what the owner wrote, “I should have taught it how to run away”. Also the young woman herself looks to be an attractive enough person, who does not fit the profile of an animal abuser – whatever that may be – she has a cat of her own(not verified) – and that even if she was drunk and had fought with her boyfriend at the time.
Despite the cup-sized ribbon-decked pooches dressed in the latest bling bling one sees in its streets, South Korea hasn’t got a strictly enforced animal-cruelty laws in place. Hopefully this incident will influence the public opinion that it is a serious crime and give more clout to the animal protection societies.
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
Terrible to hear . . . and see. The cat looked to be still just a kitten, too.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Is there a correlation between attractiveness and kindness that I am not aware of?
Yeah… an attractive young Korean woman who’s also psychotic.. I think this type of person is not as unusual as you might think.
Reminds me of Bong Joon-ho’s 플란다스의 (Flandersui gae):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFnr0IxfVhM&feature=related
@Sonagi
Kindness can increase attractiveness, but never the other way around.
i think sean connery had some wise words about this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FgMLROTqJ0
Not quite the same as the Zen story about 남천 killing the cat.
That cat-killing lady is Psycho. I hope the internet destroys her reputation.
I do wonder though, why the cat was sitting around in the lobby at the elevators instead of safe in the owners apartment?
Anyone who has discussed the subjects of cats with Koreans will know that many (I won’t say majority since I don’t know if this is the case, but I suspect it to be) will say they hate cats. They don’t know why they do exactly, but it has been explained to everyone since they were young that Koreans don’t like cats, so there it is. I find the video of the Korean woman kicking that cat disgusting, but not surprising.
Domestic animals are weak and defenseless. They consume without providing some obvious materialistic benefit to the owner. If you buck the trend and keep one in your home, you need to dress it up, paint its face and give it designer fur. Of course, eating the animal makes a lot more sense. I haven’t seen in person how dogs and cats are slain in Korea before being consumed, but it doesn’t take a wild jump of imagination to connect the never-ending craze for aphrodisiacs, with the ridiculous sums that some are willing to pay for them and the rampant materialism here, to conclude the practice still goes on. Some here will now say that the beatings and live boilings do not happen anymore, but they are lying because either they are ashamed, or in denial.
One might just chalk up the general lack of sympathy to the weak and downtrodden here to Korea’s extreme poverty in the past, but that would just be apologetic. Koreans (yes I agree, a sweeping generalization) must first be ashamed to the core as living, sentient beings of their cruel and insensitive nature toward animals, and not just embarrassed on the world stage and in indignant (the indignation is coming) in forums such as these.
That’s painting with a pretty broad brush. In this story you have one person who hates cats and one who loves them.
Why do you choose from that to generalize that most Koreans hate cats? Why don’t you look at the man who loved his pet cat and generalize that most Koreans do not hate cats?
I have a cat, and most Koreans (barring children) who enter my home tell me they hate or fear cats. Furthermore, when the subject comes up in normal conversation with Koreans, I often here from the start – 우리는 고앙이를 싫어한다). If I mistaken in my judgment, I look forward to other opinions.
고양이 not 고앙이
It might be a generational thing. More and more of my university students own cats.
Off topic, but:
Do most elevator cameras also have sound? It would be interesting to get the clips of all the times the wife and I were on the old apartment’s elevator having what we assumed were private conversations.
that sounds like old school folk wisdom or something that persists today bro. i dont hate cats or nothing but this suspicion of cats isn’t totally unwarranted. historically cats have been sources for disease and plagues and stuff. they still transmit parasites to people today. lots of people who like cats today are actually infected by a parasite that makes them attracted to cats. crazy old cat ladies are most definitely infected. http://tobiastenney.com/2010/06/toxoplasma/ these parasites can affect behavior and stuff and cause harm.
anyway dogs rule bro. cats are for bug infested weirdos and crazy cat ladies.
It’s time to write a question to Ask A Korean! as to why Koreans generally hate cats. I can’t bear to watch whatever video this has a link to, especially with Zeus the Super Kitten sitting in my lap (for a moment), but I think I have to ask him what’s with the Minjok’s General Distempered Dislike Of the Feline. Next, I’ll ask him why 100% of the cats in 1985 that I knew (there were five) were named ‘Butterfly’.
#14,
Your statement, if taken apart, is incorrect on at least several points, Bro, but that’s all right – you’re entitled to publicly display your ignorance of fact and I’m here (or was) to defend that right, Bro, so peace on, and hope that unfamiliarity of the history of cats goes away, Bro, but if it doesn’t, we can always listen to Phish and become some of those bug-infested wierdos, Bro.
And folk wisdom is old-school already, Bro. It’s like saying ‘old adage’.
Cactus:
you sound like a bug chaser bro.
Well if you consider the newfound Korean usage of the word 착하다 you could say there is a correlation. 착한 몸매, 착한 가슴, 착한 얼굴 As you can guess though 착하다 does not mean “kind” in this case.
“Is there a correlation between attractiveness and kindness that I am not aware of?”
Most good looking women that I’ve met in my travels have had some “issues” that would preclude them from the kindness category. An overbearing sense of entitlement, “Princess Disease”, apathetic, vain, resentful, selfish, spiteful and unappreciative just to name a few. Nearly all are spoiled and some are completely nuts! Maybe I’ve just been hanging out in the wrong places.
As per my reading, animal cruelty, in America, is taken as a precursor to greater crimes, by quite a few judges, thus some punishment and counseling is not uncommon. This twisted woman needs some counseling since I would hate to see what would happen to any children she might have in the future.
When it comes to animal rights (and human rights) Korean society is simply less developed than the west. There is a distinct of a lack of empathy that borders on the sociopathic running through many Asian cultures. Until recently people were electrocuted-tortured in South Korea, China execute-torture loads of people every year, most Asian countries still have the death penalty. Saying that the woman should be jailed for what she did to that poor cat. If not jailed then made to do many hours community service. The old ‘story’ of I was drunk, I don’t remember what I did is trotted out too many times by Koreans. Being drunk is no excuse for being an arsehole!
Dogs are tortured in Korea, China has a hunger for body parts of exotic and endangered animals, cats are boiled alive, the Japanese slaughter whales and dolphins. There is a distinct lack of empathy for animals here.
I would not though say all Koreans are cruel to animals, my Korean family all own cats and love them. I like cats, but would rather have a dog. Unfortunately owning a decent sized dog in Korea is difficult if you live in the city and I’d rather have a cat in an apartment than one of those horrible little yapping things Koreans consider ‘cute.
As the great man said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi. Korea has too long a way to go on human rights to think to carefully about animals. When animals are being cruelly tortured, or dressed up in designer outfits whilst children are either spoiled or abused and grandmothers are out picking garbage of the street to feed themselves says a lot about how far Korea has yet to go to be considered a true first world nation.
The good news is that at least most Koreans are pretty outraged by that sick young woman’s actions. That’s the silver lining to this horrible story.
The owner says here that he had come back from work early from feeling groggy due to a recent hip operation and had opened the window for ventilation and fell asleep.
About the cat hating thing, there is an element of truth in that. Although there are a lot of cat-owners who love cats, there quite a few “길고양이, or 길냥이 street cats”. I think it’s a mixture between some prejudice rubbing off of each other, the fact that they are quite independent-natured creatures, a misguided belief that there is something in the (Korean) history which points at them being a 흉물(unlucky omen), therefore some people still feel they do not want to keep them as pets.
A funny thing is that cat lovers in Korea, by that I mean the societies of “the real cat lover activists” remind me and my friends (general cat lovers) of the Korean political left. They are quite extreme, and can get really carried away with their cause too. It’s all cause and effect.
The good news indeed, like Keith says, is that both cat lovers and people who do not really like cats seem to recognize that that sort of psychotic behaviour is a possible germination for treating other humans that way, and they are both united in bringing in the proper punishment for the cruel people.
No. Still does not prevent people in retrospect from saying “멀쩡하게 생겨가지고(she looks normal enough) … or 이쁘게 생겨서 하는 짓이 미친 괴물(pretty looks, yet acting like a crazed monster)”
In the same sense that it also shocked people that 강호순 (the serial killer/rapist)’s face was revealed and his face also didn’t look “like a killer”. I guess it’s because some of us mistakenly believe that they can judge a book by its cover when they are talking to a possilbe crazed killer.
jewook, that 착한 몸매 – that is a recent slang though.
I think it is no secret that the owner of this blog enjoys eating dog meat from time to time. In a private conversation with me last winter, he explained to me that he sees no evidence to believe that dogs, on the whole or in the main, are beaten, burned or otherwise tortured prior to or during the process of killing them. I think he might be in denial, because he is certainly not ashamed and I doubt that he is lying.
yuna: can you show any news reports that say the alleged cat killer is also a cat owner?
Koreans have told me that the eyes of cats are scary, especially the way they “glow” at night. Others have told me that if you kill a cat, it will come back as a spirit and hurt you.
My mother-in-law told us to get rid of our cat because he would bring bad luck upon our house. Now she is quite fond of him.
Things are changing as cat ownership is increasing:
Korean guests to our house generally react well to our naughty Persian.
My Korean boss, who probably isn’t a cat fan, couldn’t understand how a human being could do what that woman is alleged to have done.
There are at least 2 “cat cafes” in Seoul, where Koreans can go and pay an entry fee (one drink included) to play with 10 or more cats.
Those animal shows on KTV like 동물농장 often have positive stories about cats and their owners.
Sorry Hamel, when the incident first started hitting the news, I was reading all the material on it- and I remember reading it somewhere, and then later on again in the whole letter by Eunbi’s owner who said something to the effect of when they invited him (at this point denying the allegation that she threw it out the window) in they had fed her (as they also have a cat) but put it out again. But I cannot find either of what I read anymore, so I changed my post to include “allegedly”. Maybe it’s a case now in development, they are asked to pull stuff off the web. Not only that, it looks like the animal protection agency is in trouble with the police for allegedly saying that the police was also pushed about = 공무 집행 방해 interference with an official in the performance of his duties.
Could the dislike of cats be due to the fact that tigers used to jump the village walls and prey on people at night? Perhaps Koreans are venting their feelings about tigers on their smaller cousins, or perhaps seeing cats’ eyes in the dark might have given them a fright? I don’t think the argument that cats carry parasites or diseases holds water since cats kill vermin that actually carry disease.
Probably it’s just that the custom of keeping cats as pets didn’t happen to make it to Korea before now; and street or feral cats can be pretty nasty and vicious…
It may be.
I’ve always had students tell me how scary cats were, and how much they hated them, but they were almost all older than 30. Now, at university, the majority of students like them and are owning them.
I had a couple of my cats in my office this week, and once students found out, they almost stampeded down the hall to see how cute they were.
Geez! I have been here too long I wan’t even watching my own homecountries news, and then tonight a Korean friend told me (over quite a few drinks) that in my home country – there was a female Prime Minister – my homecountries FIRST FEMALE Prime Minister…
I didn’t believe him, but I just got home and googled it and he is correct…
Julia Gillard is the current Prime Minister of Australia, and the leader of the Australian Labor Party, who hold a majority of seats in the lower house of federal parliament following the 2007 federal election. Gillard was elected unopposed to the Labor leadership in June 2010 after her predecessor Kevin Rudd who called the leadership spill chose not to contest.
Amazing, but apparently like all the former prime ministers she also HATES gay marriages.
Craash, mate you ARE behind in the news. Most major Aussie papers are online these days, and http://www.3aw.com.au/podcasts gives free downloadable highlights of each day’s programs. A good way to keep up while on the go.
There is something odd about a cat escaping through an apartment window. Did it jump from one balcony onto another? Cats kept indoors are generally timid and do not wander away. How the cat got out of the man’s apartment isn’t quite clear.
Sonagi, I think the cat went out into the corridor through a window which opens onto the shared corridor. Some apartments have those as well as the windows on the usual balcony side.
As for the comments about Koreans and animal cruelty – sure it’s a problem. But Westerners, including those from the States, have the opposite problem: many treat their own pets better than other people in their community. We have cemetaries for pets, pets inherit money from their owners – I know I must be leaving out some other absurd treatment of pets in the US. American society is a lonely one – didn’t some research show recently that most people had just one other person they could talk to? Koreans have their old school friends and strong extended family networks – Americans only seem to have their spouse. The country is so large you can’t easily see your relatives if you move. In Korea – it seems everyone is a couple hours away around Seoul. So, Americans try to fill the void with a pet – which can be unhealthy for them and the pet.
And while people fall head over heels for their pets, they’re disconnected to others in their communities…. Leaving a huge underclass lacking health care, toiling away in dead end jobs, or unemployed. Those are twisted priorities.
(Some Koreans also ‘humanize’ their pets – I’m sure some have seen ojumas pushing around baby carriages with dogs inside, dressed up as toddlers…. which is more than strange)
And, as for Gandhi quote mentioned earlier about judging a country by how it treats its animals, he wasn’t just referring to pets. Americans eat loads of pork, beef, and chicken produced on ‘factory farms,’ where animals don’t exactly enjoy a carefree happy existence before slaughter.
So, of course animal cruelty is unexcusable… but so is treating animals like people.. and treating other people like animals!
keith is an arrogant asshole from britain, a country that treated blacks like pigs. i think he needs to get off his high horse because the last thing koreans should do is aspire to be like his people. and what the hell is up w their food? just rubbish!
Anyone forget about how we treat downer cows? Not to mention the underground sport of raising dogs to fight each other for entertainment.
“First world” and “developed” regarding “animal rights (and human rights)” are religious, ideological, quasi-mystical terms and notions that like any religion are promoted through shame, guilt, subversion, force, etc. It’s important to remember that something like Chinese encroachment isn’t the only potential threat and danger. There are memetic threats as well.
“The owner then was threatened again by the same woman in the lift, and this has been caught on the CCTV.”
CCTV cameras in elevators can record sound?
Whoops…CCTV in elevators can record sound?
In other words, is this story real?
re: #33 re: #32
Sorry – had quite a bit to drink last night and posted that in the Wrong forum.
I was reading through this post and suddenly thought it was the “Open Thread” forum.
I wish I could delete it from this forum – but can’t.
But thanks for the link anyway…
dude are you tarded. that’s exactly how cats came to be hosts for parasites and diseases and stuff bro. the link i posted before is about toxoplasma which has to move from rats to cats to survive since it can only reproduce in cats stomachs. pregnant women especially should be careful since the toxoplasma can infect the fetus and really mess up babies.
Jashin: are you suggesting that Koreans had some knowledge about cats as carriers of toxoplasma before the advent of germ theory to this land?
What about dogs? Do they harbor any disease?
@37 coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment! It was actually the British who were largely responsible for dismantling the slave trade. The Americans were most upset by Britain’s rejection of the slave trade. Plus google Wilberforce + slave trade and RSPCA. you might actually learn something you ignorant wanker.
Slavery in Korea wasn’t outlawed until the Gabo reforms! It basically took Japan to make the Korean aristocracy give up slavery, as it took the British to encourage the Americans to give up slavery. The RSPCA was established to protect animals from cruelty before Korea gave up slave ownership.
Britain and Japan have had cruel histories in regards to how they have wielded their imperial might, at the same time they have often been behind civilising other countries! Interesting and powerful countries are capable of great good and great harm. Boring and irrelevant countries don’t really hold people’s interest.
British food is fine if done well. At least you can tell the difference between food that humans eat and food that goes in the waste bin. A distinction that can be a little difficult with some country’s cuisines! At least British and European farmers are generally held to higher standards than in countries where customers encourage their suppliers to torture their food for alleged health benefits.
Mocking you and proving you wrong is just too easy Pawi, it is hardly fun.
Yah, too bad ur moms got the word too late, bro.
When it comes to personal safety and crime rate the UK is somewhere inbetween Guatemala and Chechnya
Strange cos i was under the distinct impression that’s how the British criminal justice system worked in the New Labour era, i must read the wrong news then
hamel:
no i don’t think they knew bro. nobody knew about this stuff until recently. but practices, attitudes, folk wisdom and stuff like that can arise without really understanding the real underlying causes. so like in the past syphilis was incurable and you were scarred and hurt for life and it sucked big time, and if you had kids they would have congenital syphilis. promiscuity was more dangerous then. so like religious beliefs about promiscuity being sinful might have developed or had more power or persisted partly bc/ of this and practically they kinda ‘worked.’ another example is pigs. pigs in the mideast historically had a lot of disease and bacteria and stuff because of the climate there. whereas pigs in other places like europe were relatively cleaner. this might be related to religious dietary laws in religions like judaism and islam.
all animals carry diseases and can potentially carry diseases bro. you can get parasites and diseases and stuff from dogs. dogs have a longer history living with people than cats tho. dogs have been used by humans since pre civilization. cats are post civ. dogs have also been more useful than cats (hunting, guarding, source of more meat, etc). so the cost benefit ratio was probly better for dogs for most of history. and longer history and disease experience with dogs probly meant better disease balance with dogs. but who knows. i don’t think these topics are set in stone or anything like that yet.
dogbertt:
it causes miscarriages bro. i’m here, writing to a creep like you, so no, she didn’t get it. speaking of moms tho, i heard you have congenital syphilis.
These are most assuredly not some mighty fine insults.
They most certainly are not. Cut that out.
So, is the story legit or not?
@ SomeguyinKorea
“So, is the story legit or not?”
Not sure what aspect you are talking about. It seems a cat did die after falling or being thrown from a high floor of an officetel building. It seems CCTV footage did show the neighbor of the cat’s owner having at it in the hallway between the officetels. It seems that other CCTV footage captured said neighbor threatening said owner for having made a complaint against her with the police.
What part might not be legit?
What’s wrong with the netizens? Aren’t they a little slow in ID’ing this this cat-killing woman and getting her phone number, address, email address, boss’s phone number, bra size, mini-hompi, and everything else posted online? Or did it already happen and it hasn’t been noted here yet?
She’s probably already in hiding.
cmm: actually, that has surprised me.
Either:
(1) Korean cat-loving netizens are not net-savvy
(2) they are net savvy but are wary of being prosecuted or sued or being labeled as going too far, in light of 개똥녀 and so on
OR
(3) someone has already got all her details (surely her neighbor knows some of them already) but they are keeping them mum to protect the neighbor – after all, he must live there.
#49,
That’s some fine prose there, bro, and some of few coherent things you’ve ever posted – mytoque’s off to you. And you’re correct about the hygenic label on the pork – besides, pigs are too much of a water hog (if you will) in the desert.
#55,
I would have thought one of the more active members of the Korean-cat-people- cult (you know I’d be a member) would have been already on it, but perhaps they’re welding little political and socio-economic power these days. Shouldn’t this be a cause for a demonstration, too?
There have been some attempts at releasing the info. So people who want to know her name and occupation (at first it was released as 업소녀 i.e. woman who works at a drinks joint, but later changed to someone who is a student on a breakpreparing to go study in China) can get hold of it. However, the owner himself does not seem to be out for “revenge” as such, he just doesn’t want a repeat of the same sort of thing. Also if I am correct there was some sort of gathering last Saturday in Seoul w.r.t this incident. Probably was a bad day (weather) for it.
A lot of serious cat owners in Korea belong to one of the three internet 모임s -hosted by Naver, Daum and Cyworld.
According to Korea Animal Rights Advocates, the cat torturer and killer is 25 year-old Chae You Jeong – http://animalrightskorea.org/news-articles/drunk-woman-cat-killer-caught-on-cctv.html
Whoever she is, I do hope her life gets very uncomfortable.
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