Pet loss pain is real, but coping mechanisms are aplenty in Korea

 
“I carry this memorial bottle that holds my dog’s fur wherever I go. I can’t let go of him yet,” said Kang Sung-il, head of the Korea Companion Animal Funeral Research Institute.
 
Twenty days had passed since the 41-year-old director of the research institute lost his beloved dog named Ssancho, with whom he lived for 10 years, but Kang still fills the deceased dog’s bowls, neatly placed in front of the canine’s cremation urn, with clean water and pet food.
 
Kang has assisted with the funerals of about 12,000 pets in his lifetime, but preparing the funeral for his own dog early last month was another level of psychological pain. “There was nothing I could do for him because it was an unexpected death. It was so hard [to get over the loss]. I wish I could clone him.”
 
Fellow dog lover Jeong So-hyun still has vivid memories of her dog Gi-dong, who had a heart disease. The dog died in January after living 16 years with Jeong. “It’s not easy to face the reality that my dog doesn’t exist anymore,” she said.
 
With more people living with pets now than ever before, an increasing number of Koreans are suffering from what is referred to as pet loss syndrome. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 6 million households reportedly had pets, specifically cats or dogs, as of 2022 — or one in four households.
 

Many dog owners have a hard time dealing with the loss of their four-legged companions. Above photograph is a cremation service center Pet Forest for dogs in Gyeonggi. [PET FOREST]

 
On March 23, which was National Puppy Day, up to 1.5 million posts were uploaded to celebrate the day on Facebook alone.
  
KB Management Institute, an affiliate of KB Financial Group, ran a survey among people who had pets last year and found out 81.6 percent of respondents said they considered their pets as part of their families.
 
Given these statistics, it comes as no surprise that people feel depressed when they lose their pets. According to research by Prof. Chung Un-sun and her team at Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, 79 percent of people showed severe symptoms of depression within a year of losing their pet.
 
As the number of people who care for a four-legged companion increases, some businesses have found a niche market by catering to the needs of these pet lovers.
 
One such service makes customized stuffed dolls.
 
Kim, who wished to be identified only by his family name, recently lost his Pomeranian dog. To remember his dog, Kim ordered a customized stuffed doll.
 
To purchase a stuffed doll, buyers send photos of their dogs along with some tufts of their fur. Later they will receive a copycat, stuffed fluffy versions of their companion. “As soon as I received the stuffed doll, I burst into tears because it looked the same as my dog,” Kim said.
 
Kim Seol-ah, who makes the stuffed dolls, said orders doubled last year and she sold more than 200 dolls in that year alone.
 
Some people pursue more drastic ways to fill the absence of their lost pets. One YouTube creator recently uploaded a clip detailing how he cloned his pet. A heated discussion about the pros and cons of pet cloning ensued in the comments section after the video clip was shared.
 
There are a number of posts asking for ways to collect and store the somatic cells of their pets on online forums as well these days, to be used for cloning.
 
There are no laws to regulate animal cloning in Korea, and some pet owners opt to contact individual pet cloning businesses.
 
“It costs up to 10 million won [$7,400] to store the collected somatic cells in liquid nitrogen for a year and somewhere between 60 million and 100 million won are additionally needed to clone a dog depending on the breed,” according to a person working in the pet cloning industry who wished to remain anonymous.
 
Meanwhile, Cho Hee-kyung, the head of the Korean Animal Welfare Association, reported the head of the pet cloning business, which is said to have cloned the dog of the YouTube creator, to the police.
 
“You need at least 10 surrogate mother dogs to clone a single dog,” Cho said. “Animals should be treated equally to humans. In addition, cloning can’t be used as a means [to fulfill people’s needs.]”
 

A dog owner went to order a customized stuffed-doll and a picture frame that looks exactly like her dead dog. [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

A dog owner went to order a customized stuffed-doll and a picture frame that looks exactly like her dead dog. [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

 
People who are against pet cloning argue cloned dogs won't have the same personalities and traits as the original anyway. Koo Bon-kyoung, the head of the Center for Genome Engineering at the Institute for Basic Science, said, “You can’t copy your pets. Your cloned pets are bound to have different traits. In the worst-case scenario, you may even end up having a mutant.”
 
Others see the issue in a different light. “Animals should be treated fairly, but it is hard to see them as equal to humans under the constitution. The happiness of humans comes before that of animals,” said lawyer Han Jae-eon.
 
Park Se-pill, head of the Stem Cell Research Center at Jeju National University, is in favor of pet cloning. “You can't understand the pain experienced by people who lost their pets due to incurable diseases or accidents.”
 
“Most recently, personalized stem cells have been used to treat some animals with untreatable diseases. There’s nothing wrong with using this technology to pursue happiness,” Park said.  
 
With about 13 million people raising pets, experts say it is time to reach an agreement on how to approach the inevitable death of the furry companions.  
 
“Detailed clauses need to be made first so that we can counter possible abuse cases of surrogate dog mothers when collecting their eggs or disposing of deformed pups,” lawyer Han said.

BY SHIN SU-MIN [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]