Monday, July 27, 2009

Pet-Watch


We came across this advert in a subway passage below the city of Daegu.
I found it quite astounding for a number of reasons:
Firstly that pet 'accessories' companies are obviously way mroe liucrative in Korea: to have enough money pay for such a huge ad - this would certainly not be the case in South Africa. This ad was sharing space with ads by Gucci, Louis Vitton and Polo.
Secondly that people in Korea would happily leave their pets unattended for days on end as long as they are fed - by a machine.
The third astounding thing is that you can have a photo/video of your pet eating from the machine sent to your cellphone, just to be sure it IS eating. I mean the technology is amazing but I think the lack of care for the pet's 'emotional' well-deing is quite sad.

I get the feeling that pets in Korea are often just another fashion accessory: the way they get dressed up and their fur died crazy colours....So if one can buy a machine that conveniently feeds the pet and sends evidence then why not?!


I think one of the reasons this caught my attention is that quite a few people in our block of flats have small dogs - in tiny apartments. Last week we noticed a definite indoor-pet-smell coming from an apartment where we usually hear a baby crying. We hadn't heard the baby for a good few days so I think the little family had gone off on holiday and left the dog in that tiny apartment...most likely with a food dispenser and no-one to look in on it while they were away - hence the nasty smell. How sad.

Just another interesting aspect of life in Korea - there's always something new!

3 comments:

EEbEE said...

We have just got a Bassett hound for our flat in PMB.
It's very nice having a dog. Definitely makes the house feel more like home...

although i do notice that he gets lonely when we are not playing with him. i want to get a rabbit to keep him entertained and give him company when we are gone during the day.... wonder if this will work (do puppies eat rabbit?)

Karin said...

Does the poor dog have to use a litter box? Shame, arme Ding!. I would like one of those so i can see which animal is eating which food. i have dog eating cat food and cat eating dog food. they are soooo confused

Karin said...

I think puppy will eat rabbit Ebz!! :). Dogs get lonely when you don't play with them, thats just the thing, you have to have a second one, so they don't bother you. But then again, whats the point in getting a dog, if you don't want it bothering you? I'm lucky, if i don't play with my doggie, she jumps over the fence and plays with the neighbours dog, the fence is half a metre high :))