Dear Member of the Motion Picture Industry,

Busan, South Korea has been the host of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) since 1996. However, behind all the glitz and the glamorous spotlight, there is a dark side to Busan you are not aware of, one the organizing committee of BIFF doesn’t want you to know about.

Dog slaughter for human consumption is still being committed every day at both the Gupo Livestock Market in the Busan Bukgu district and at the Bupyeong Market in the Busan Joongu district, even during the motion picture industry’s annual international event. It is difficult for us to understand why the BIFF organizing committee has never in the past 19 years taken any action to address the cruel practice of dog slaughter.

Please watch the recent undercover videos taken at the Gupo Market where puppies who lived their entire lives in raised cages with their feet never touching the ground and are fed on rotten garbage are displayed for customers who order them to be slaughtered right in front of them to prove their “freshness!”

20170825 부산 구포 지옥에서 온 도살자와 방관자들: https://youtu.be/ad-swLg6_rA

            Part 1: http://youtu.be/l6GamXbMH9s

            Part 2:  http://youtu.be/Ng6XSGec3uQ

            Part 3:  http://youtu.be/6CWs7sZXS28

            Part 4:  http://youtu.be/eHW8HeOdBZU

Even though South Korea has established an Animal Protection Law for companion animals, dogs continue to be beaten, hung, skinned alive, electrocuted, and treated brutally by farmers and slaughterers. Dogs and cats are still being boiled alive for so-called elixirs, which do not have medical properties except in the minds of ignorant and gullible customers.  An estimated 2.5 million dogs and thousands of cats are cruelly slaughtered each year in South Korea. Their lives and deaths are a nightmare of unimaginable agony and suffering. This heartless brutality and cruelty must be stopped now.

In order to eradicate the practice of dog slaughter in the nation of South Korea, and specifically at the Busan Gupo Market, we request that you lend your voice to these dogs and speak out against this terrible injustice perpetrated against them.

Please boycott the Busan International Film Festival and send a strong message to Busan and South Korea that the world will no longer ignore the heinous atrocity committed against these innocent animals.