Animal Rescue Korea, Dr. Pet Animal Medical Center hold weekly Adoption Days in Seoul

Volunteers dry off newly arrived dogs from the Asan shelter

I visited the Dr. Pet Animal Medical Center on a rainy Saturday in July—I'd just missed Adoption Day. As soon as I walked in, I recognized Jagi from the Animal Rescue Korea Web site. The tiny Yorkshire terrier had the run of the first floor, and I picked him up and cuddled him while I waited.

Jagi's foster parents had left the country, and Dr. Pet was his emergency refuge. Before that, he had been rescued from a municipal pound—under Korea's newly revised animal protection law, the minimum holding period is only 10 days.

The first floor was quiet, but upstairs four volunteers were busy drying off new arrivals from "Jane's Grandpa's House," an animal shelter in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. Excited dogs were at our feet begging for attention and treats. Dr. Choi Jae Hyek and Ryan Goessl, the ARK volunteer who is organizing the weekly adoption effort, were attending to an orange kitten named Pumkin.

Dr. Choi, who also goes by James, traveled to Australia about 10 years ago to upgrade his skills at a charity-run clinic. Although he was already a licensed vet in Korea, under the terms of his visa he was restricted to nursing duties during much of his time there. But that didn't dampen his enthusiasm, and a letter of recommendation on his wall attests to his dedication. The experience greatly influenced his thinking about homeless animals, he told me in an interview.

Dr. Pet has been operating for almost eight years, but it was only last year that Dr. Choi returned to work as a "real vet," as he put it. Since then he has taken in dozens of animals who might otherwise have been killed in government-run facilities.

Those animals include Jini, a stray Jindo dog I found in April. I couldn't take him home, so I e-mailed a group of local rescuers for assistance and Dr. Choi stepped forward. Without being asked, he offered to keep Jini at the clinic until he could be adopted or reunited with the family that lost him.

Jini was adopted six weeks later. Thanks to Dr. Choi, he wasn't transported two hours north of the city to the Korea Animal Rescue and Management Association (Karma for short), which provides animal control services for most of Seoul's administrative districts. Adoption Day benefits animals from different shelters and pounds, as well as individual rescues like Jini.

Adopted animals have changed many people's lives, said Dr. Choi, and awareness has increased over the past few years. Intake statistics from Karma show a significant decline in dog admissions between 2004 and 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available—the number peaked in 2005 at 13,697 and declined to 9,686 by 2007. But the number of cats skyrocketed during the same period, with Karma taking in 4,726 cats in 2007 compared with only 2,578 in 2005. Cats are becoming more popular as companions, Dr. Choi explained, and as a result more cats have escaped and started feral colonies. (A detailed breakdown of Karma's statistics was not immediately available. That makes it unclear how many animals were adopted, how many cats were sterilized as part of trap-neuter-return programs, and what happened to the rest.)

Dr. Choi said some people are afraid of the cost of treating a sick animal, and that's why he rehabilitates animals at his own expense before placing them in new homes.

"That's my donation," he said.

He also said ARK's foreign volunteers had inspired him, and that he wanted to thank them. In return, Canadian volunteer Kathy Hall had nothing but praise for Dr. Choi and his staff. Hall organizes weekly volunteer trips to the Asan shelter and plays an important role in Adoption Day.

"Dr. Choi has a huge heart and is very passionate about helping rescue animals," she told me via e-mail. "I think that being a vet is way more than just a job for Dr. Choi; helping animals is truly his passion."

She and other rescuers have transported a number of animals from Jane's Grandpa's House to Dr. Pet, located in Seoul's busy Gangnam area. They get more exposure to the public than they would at the shelter and get adopted much faster—usually within a week or two.

"Thanks to [Dr. Choi's] generosity, ARK has managed to adopt out many animals who were being overlooked at the shelter,” she said.

Adoption Day is every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but visiting hours are flexible. Dogs currently at Dr. Pet include Maika and Rusty, both small mixed breeds described by volunteers as extremely sweet and loyal, and a happy little black poodle named Precious. Jagi, the little dog who greeted me during my Adoption Day visit, was there for only a few days before finding a new foster home. He's still waiting for his forever family. Also at the clinic are an orange cat named Garfield, a black and white rabbit named Chompers, and eight kittens brought in recently by ARK volunteers. (Sadly, three of the original 13 kittens have died; two others are in foster care.)

"Recently we brought a group of 13 kittens to Dr. Choi's clinic," Hall said. "The kittens were very sick and had severe eye infections. Dr. Choi and his amazing colleagues took the kittens under their wing and cared for them around the clock. … How can we thank this amazing group of people? … Dr. Choi will not accept money from us."

Hall, who has been teaching in Seoul since October 2006 and volunteering with ARK for the past seven months, said she never expected to get so involved.

"I went to support a friend who was adopting a dog from the shelter," she wrote. "I was nervous about what the shelter would be like, and how I would feel after going there. However, I was pleasantly surprised."

Her experience with ARK has been so rewarding, in fact, that it has led her to rethink her goals in life.

"Through my volunteer work I have discovered that it is my passion to help animals, and I will continue to do this kind of work no matter where life takes me."

To get to Dr. Pet by subway, take line No. 7 to Gangnam-gu Office Station and go out exit No. 2. Turn left at Shinhan Bank and walk until you have passed three traffic lights. The clinic is on your left. If you get lost, call (02) 3443-8275.

• Login or register to post comments
• 3855 reads
• Printer-friendly version
• Send to friend