"Massacre" vs "Winter Festival" Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival 'Animal Abuse' Controversy

2020 Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival Opens Early for Foreigners on 4th
Animal Rights Groups Criticize, Saying "Stop the Mass Slaughter"

Many tourists are visiting the Hwacheoncheon Festival site in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon Province, enjoying ice fishing. The photo shows the crowd at the '2019 Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival.' [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] The Sancheoneo Festival held in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, has opened early for foreign tourists, but animal rights groups continue to raise concerns about 'animal cruelty' and 'mass slaughter.' Meanwhile, some argue that it is simply a winter festival, sparking controversy.

The '2020 Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival' opened early on the 4th for foreign tourists. The ice fishing site set up upstream of Hwacheoncheon in Hwacheon-eup, Hwacheon-gun, was crowded from the morning with foreign tourists from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and other countries. The festival committee tentatively estimated that about 5,400 foreigners visited Hwacheoncheon by 3 p.m. that day.

The issue is the controversy over 'animal cruelty.' In January last year, the 'Save Sancheoneo Movement Headquarters,' consisting of six organizations including Action for Animals, Sea Shepherd Korea, Animal Liberation Wave, Biodiversity Foundation, Animal Rescue 119, and Animal Protection Group Haenggang, held a joint press conference at the festival site in Hwacheon-eup on the opening day of the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival.

These groups stated, "Although it is called an animal festival, animals are merely tools for human profit, desire satisfaction, leisure, and entertainment," and criticized, "For humans, it is a festival, but for animals, it is a carnival of death."

They continued, "This bizarre event kills hundreds of thousands of lives within just a few weeks solely for entertainment, not for human survival," and reiterated, "This animal hell, which humans call a festival, is nothing but a scene of mass slaughter."

Fish caught on bait during the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The groups particularly emphasized that the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Festival is uneducational. They said, "Since many participants are families, children unconsciously learn animal cruelty," and pointed out, "Through uneducational programs such as bare-handed catching, children learn how to disrespect life, handle living beings carelessly, and proudly take commemorative photos holding creatures that feel pain in their mouths."

They especially criticized, "As uncomfortable as the fact that it is killing for fun is the method itself," calling it "'cage slaughter,' where animals are forcibly confined in huge fish tanks and caught and killed as a hobby."

While animal rights groups continue to criticize the Sancheoneo fishing festival, some argue that these criticisms are excessive. A man in his 30s, Mr. A, said, "Isn't eating eggs also cruelty?" and added, "I really cannot understand this situation."

Another man in his 40s, Mr. B, said, "Isn't raising cows and pigs also animal cruelty?" and lamented, "I don't understand why only the fish festival is being targeted like this."

On the other hand, there are other opinions. Mr. C, in his mid-20s, who watched the Sancheoneo Festival on YouTube, said, "I think the claim of animal cruelty is a call not to 'mass slaughter' collectively," and raised his voice, "We should not enjoy taking lives as a game or festival."

Meanwhile, the Sancheoneo Festival, now in its 17th year, is a representative winter festival that has attracted over one million visitors annually since 2006, following its first event in 2003. It gained fame after being introduced by CNN in 2011 as one of the 'Seven Wonders of the Winter World.' In 2017, the number of foreign tourists surpassed 100,000 for the first time.