Uiryeong-gun holds a folk beef strength competition to celebrate Chuseok... Controversy over animal abuse continues

Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do announced that the '21st Chuseok Uiryeong Folk Beef Power Competition' will be held at the folk stadium in the Uiryeong-eup Traditional Agricultural Culture Theme Park for three days starting on the 25th.

This competition, hosted by the Uiryeong-gun branch of the Korean Folk Cattle Power Competition Association and sponsored by Uiryeong-gun, was designed to inherit traditional folk games.

About 100 cattle, including 50 cattle from the Uiryeong area, will participate in the competition.

Cows that made it to the round of 16 or higher in the national competition from last year to the first half of this year will participate.

During the competition, along with promoting local agricultural specialties, a drawing event will be held where prizes such as 'Saturday Korean beef', eco-friendly rice, and animal welfare fertilized eggs will be held.

Korean paper craft and mushroom food experience events involving rural education farms will also be held.

However, there are also concerns about animal abuse surrounding bull fighting and criticism over the competition budget support amounting to 150 million won.

Kwon Dae-seon, chairman of the steering committee of the Jeongeup Green Party, who has consistently raised issues with bull fighting competitions, said, "Opinions opposing bull fighting continue to emerge due to concerns about animal abuse," and added, "Do we really need to spend money to hold competitions when even a bill to abolish bull fighting is being discussed in the National Assembly?"

He continued, “In actual competitions, we often see cases where bulls that avoid fighting are forced to fight,” and argued, “The bill to abolish the law on traditional bull fighting competitions must be passed and bull fighting must be abolished.”

Accordingly, a military official explained, "If a cow avoids a fight, the game is stopped, and most of the time, the game ends when the cow shows signs of exhaustion."

He added, “It is expected that about 700 to 800 people will gather a day for the three days the competition is held, so there is also an opportunity to revitalize the local economy.” He added, “We are coordinating with the association to prevent concerns about animal abuse as much as possible.”