Bullfighting - tradition or animal abuse?

Cultural tradition allegedly exploiting animals is locking horns with campaigns to protect animals from cruelty here, after a local council decided not to fund the region's long-running bullfighting event.

According to the Jeongeup City Council in North Jeolla Province, Tuesday, it has decided not to earmark 114 million won ($100,000) in supplementary budget, requested by the city government, for its 23-year-old bullfighting event after facing strong protests from local animal rights groups.

The animal groups claim that bullfighting is an act of animal cruelty perpetrated in the name of cultural tradition and has to be stopped.

A bull is a herbivore, but owners of bulls often feed them snake soup or dog soup for stamina ― although their effects are not authenticated, according to the groups. In addition, the bulls have to climb mountains and run with tires in the name of training.

In that respect, the Korean Animal Welfare Association (KAWA), the nation's largest nonprofit organization for animals, has launched a campaign aimed at cutting back on local governments' budgets for bullfighting because it believes budget cuts to be the first steps towards ending the events.

Eleven regions nationwide have held annual bullfighting festivals and Jeongeup was the first on the radar.

The animal rights group staged one-man protests in front of the city council, while threatening to release video footage online showing the local government permits animal abuse. Some 2,000 financial supporters have joined the move.

The KAWA welcomed the Jeongeup council's decision, adding that it plans to continue efforts to stop bullfighting in other areas.

"We appreciate that a civic group in Jeongeup cooperated with us and the city council made the right decision. We will keep monitoring the issue in the city," Kang Jaewon, a campaigner of the KAWA's Social Innovation Team, told The Korea Times.

"Nine out of 11 bullfighting events are scheduled to take place in the second half of the year, so we plan to have a two- or three-month preparatory period to select the next target areas."

In the wake of the budget cut, a bullfighting association is countering that bullfighting is Korea's own cultural heritage and is legal, unlike dog fighting and cockfighting.

"Bullfighting has 1,000 years of history dating back. Unlike illegal dog fighting and cockfighting, it has rules and it is not subject to allegations of animal cruelty," its official said.

Amid growing awareness of animal rights, local governments often face criticism from animal welfare organizations when they host annual festivals that involve animals.

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, one of Korea's most famous winter festivals, has been under fire for its cruel treatment of mountain trout for people's pleasure.

As a result, some petitions were posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website earlier this year, demanding the abolishment of fishing festivals or at least an improvement of the programs.

"It is a massacre of mountain trout," one petitioner said at the time.