Protests Over Live Animal Burials

SOUTH Korean religious groups have criticised the government for burying some animals alive to curb the country’s worst outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Under government guidelines, animals should be either killed or anaesthetised before being buried.

But such rules have been frequently ignored with animals buried alive in many places as the disease swept much of the country, 35 Christian, Buddhist and other religious groups said in a joint statement.

They released a video clip showing some 1900 pigs being buried alive near Seoul.

The groups urged the government to cull animals more humanely and vowed to hold a joint memorial service for the beasts next week.

Since the first case was confirmed on November 29, South Korea has culled 3.39 million cattle, pigs, goats and deer and buried them at 4600 sites.

The outbreak showed signs of abating this week after all 13 million remaining livestock were inoculated. Second shots are under way.

Critics said the tactics used to fight the outbreak were wrong, with authorities at first shunning a vaccination programme because it wanted to protect future meat exports.

Use of vaccinations delays international certification of a country as free of foot-and-mouth. The agriculture ministry said there was initially a shortage both of vaccines and of anaesthetic drugs.

Environmental groups accused the government of turning the country into a mass graveyard of farm animals to protect less than $2 million worth of meat exports a year.

“It’s sad and outrageous to see the burial of live pigs. Vaccination was an effective way to avoid excessive killing,” activist Kim Yong-Hui told AFP.

Kim and others said the hasty burial of farm animals had also raised concerns about the contamination of groundwater. The government has pledged to inspect burial sites.