About 200 shelter dogs walked a red carpet in Seoul so people would adopt them

On Sunday morning someone rolled a red carpet out in Yeouido Hangang Park in Seoul and put white tents down both sides of it. It was cold and it rained, and about 200 shelter dogs walked down it anyway.

The dogs were dressed for it, mostly in scarves and little dresses, and one of them came in a costume with wings. The scarves were colour-coded. Red meant the dog was looking for someone to adopt it. Yellow meant a foster home would do too.

It was put on by Pimkey, a Korean website that matches abandoned animals with foster homes and adopters. It was part of Seoul’s Animal Happiness Festa, which the city runs every year with the Hankook Ilbo newspaper.

The dogs that wait longest

Pimkey wanted people to look at the old dogs, the big dogs and the dogs with disabilities, because those are the ones that wait longest for a home. So nine Korean celebrities walked some of the longest waiters down the carpet. They included Kang Seung-yoon of the band Winner, the actor Sung Hoon, the singer Stella Jang and the choreographer Lia Kim.

The Hankook Ilbo wrote down each of those dogs’ stories, and here are some of them.

Keuki is 7. Somebody abandoned Keuki over the Lunar New Year holiday in February, and the dog wandered round the neighbourhood until rescuers turned up. Nobody has asked about adopting Keuki yet, because Keuki is old and big. Keuki loves people, gets on with other dogs, and on Sunday stood up on two legs to say hello to Kang Seung-yoon.

Luna is 6 and lost a back leg in a trap. She was pregnant when she was rescued, and she has been waiting at a shelter for more than four years. She’s quiet, she likes treats and she’s good on a lead.

Monji is 11 and came in with badly matted fur, heartworm and a tumour. Monji got through all the treatment and is healthy now, and is still waiting for a family.

Patjuk is 9 and is named after red bean porridge. Patjuk used to live alone in an empty house, where an owner came by twice a week with food, until volunteers stepped in. There’s nowhere for the dog to go yet, so for now Patjuk lives tied up outside a shop in the neighbourhood. The paper says Patjuk is very fond of people.

Bella is 4 and was rescued with a father dog and a litter of puppies. Every one of the others has found a family since. Bella has settled in with a foster family, is calm indoors and is still waiting.

Saerom is 4 and went into a shelter two years ago, and nobody has asked about Saerom since. Saerom loves people and especially likes climbing onto laps.

Lucky is 1, was rescued from a slaughterhouse, and is slowly getting used to people.

Not every dog on the carpet needed a home. Taeyang is a search dog with Korea’s 119 fire rescue service and is about to retire, and walked down next to a rescuer in an orange 119 uniform.

Why a red carpet

Pimkey is run by a company called Pimfy Virus. Its head, Jang Shin-jae, told the Korea Economic Daily in September that adoption usually gets told as a heavy, sad story, and that Pimkey would rather make it fun. Here is how Jang put it, translated from Korean:

I want to turn abandoned animals from something people pity into something people love, once they meet them and see what they’re like.Jang Shin-jae, Pimfy Virus, to the Korea Economic Daily

The longer hope, Jang said, is that adopting a dog instead of buying one becomes the normal thing to do in Korea.

If you liked a dog on Sunday, you could talk to its foster family there and then. After that, the rescue group looking after the dog interviews you and decides. Anyone who wants one of the dogs from Sunday can still apply through Pimkey.

Pimkey hasn’t said yet how many of the 200 dogs have found homes.