The April 15th general election came a week ahead. The skin feels that the election season is approaching. Because when the election season comes, you will receive such a call.

"I got involved in making a pet pledge at XX Party. I have a question, can I speak to you?" , "The OO party is making a commitment related to the cost of veterinary clinics. I need your help. Can I pass your phone number?"

In fact, it's very grateful to ask me when a political party makes a commitment. However, as I received this contact during the election season , I was asked, 'In addition, how much unrealistic commitment have you made? Will I keep my promise after the election? ' It is true that the question is asked.


As a veterinarian, he launched a daily veterinary newspaper called Dailyvet in April 2013. And about a year later, I first got this question. This was ahead of the local elections in 2014. At that time, a local candidate ran for a campaign. When I first received this contact, I was very happy for two reasons. First, it was surprising that the political community was interested in animal-related policies. The second was personally proud of asking for help from me. In fact, it was surprising when the proposed policy was partially reflected in the candidate's commitment. Of course, when the candidate was elected, the chances of realizing the promise were eliminated, but other local elects who made similar promises failed to keep the promise.

For reference, Mayor Park Won-soon also promised to increase the number of playgrounds for dogs in the city of Seoul, which were three at the time of the local elections in 2014, to five by 2015. The local elections in 2018 also reinforced the pledge by saying, "We will expand and install the dog playground in 25 autonomous districts (1 in each autonomous district, a total of 25)." However, as of March 2020, the number of playgrounds for dogs operated by Seoul is still three.

In 2016, each political party announced a pledge of companion animals. When statistics showed that the population of pet guardians exceeded 10 million, an atmosphere spread across the politics that the pet pledge could soon have a major impact on the vote rate. Some political parties launched the Animal Rights Campaign Headquarters at the same time, while others said they would elect the Minister of Animal Welfare. Both parties have made a common pledge to "revise the civil law that treats animals as objects," but the legal status of animals remains in the 'things' until now.

In the 2017 presidential election, each candidate poured out a pet pledge. At the time, President Moon Jae-in visited the dog playground in Sangam-dong, Seoul, and announced five pledges to the pets under the theme of 'Happy Pet Friendly Korea', three of which have not yet been observed, and one is the responsibility of the local government. It is pointed out that the reality is poor.

The same was true for the 2018 local elections. Each party, as well as the major local election runners, announced all of their pet-commitments, but there were more unfulfilled commitments, and most of these promises were simply to increase the business by adding more tax.

So, can a pet-commitment actually affect elections? Personally, I think it can. Statistics show that in 2017, there were 15 million pet guardians, not 10 million. In addition, 97.8% of the 2,130 respondents answered that they would do so in a poll surveyed by civic groups 'being willing to vote for parliamentarians or parties interested in animal rights' ahead of the 2016 general election. There is also an anecdote that the number of proposals related to companion animals occupied the second place as a result of the candidate's campaign for the general public during the last presidential election.

Because of this situation, the same thing is being repeated even before the general election. In addition to the Future United Party (the time of the Freedom of Korea Party), the Democratic Party announced a pet companionship in January and March, respectively, and each candidate also announced several animal commitments.

It is a pleasure to bring attention to pets in politics. That would mean that we think of pets as a member of our society.

But please, this election pledge
I just hope that it will not be a promise and will be kept properly.

# In-it # In-it #Lee Hak-bum #Alumni

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