▲ The Cherry Salmon festival that many people visit

▲ Foreigners enjoying the festival

Although the venue is a military area, Cherry Salmon Festival is a very important festival for Hwacheon County. The residents are worried because the tourists who visit to see the festival may be scared. So, soldiers in the military area do not hold guns when they are on duty even in summer when the festival is not held. The Cherry Fish Rescue Headquarters, a group of animal rights advocates, has filed a complaint against the foundation and Hwacheon City Magistrate, who will host the festival, for violating animal protection laws. They argue that the act of causing unnecessary injury and death of Cherry Fish during the festival constitutes a violation of Article 8 of the Animal Protection Law. They also said that bare-handed catching can cause stress by exposing it to the air, and fishing can cause facial tissue damage, like digging into the eyes of fish while removing needles. In response, the Environment Minister supported the Cherry Fish Rescue Headquarters, saying, that it is a human-centered feast with life as collateral, and he does not think it is desirable. Hwacheon County claims that if fishing is a crime raising and eating cows, pigs and chickens are also crimes.

Amid the confrontation, citizens strongly criticized the headquarters saying that if they insist to use F-killer to catch flies and mosquitoes, they will suffer. So, everybody has to catch them with only fly swabs. The controversy is expected to arise whenever animal-related festivals are held in the future, which will continue to cause fighting between local community's rights association animal groups.

March 12th, 2020 By Park Hyoin