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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Pet hotel thrives as Koreans seek canine companions

By Nam You-Sun | AFP
(8th of July 2012 Sunday)

Checking into one of Seoul's newest luxury clinics just because your companion needs a shower may seem extravagant, but Cho Hang-Min said he had no other choice.

"Other places won't do it," said Cho, a student, explaining why he and his Border Collie have stopped off at Irion.

The two-storey establishment in the city's wealthy Gangnam district is a luxury hotel and clinic for pampered pets -- a rising trend in South Korea where dogs were once treated as guard animals or as something to eat.

These days younger Koreans are spending more on their pets, enabling the rise of a high-end industry out to ensure that canine companions are just as pampered as their style-conscious owners.

Irion, which means "Come here" in Korean, opened in February 2011 as a one-stop complex offering a veterinary clinic, grooming salon, cafe, shop, daycare center, an exercise area and "hotel" rooms for dogs and cats.

"I opened Irion because I saw the demand in the industry, to keep pace with the growing animal companion culture in Korea as the economy develops," Park So-Yeon, head of the DBS company which runs the facility, told AFP.

"These facilities are necessities, not luxuries, for people raising animals. Unfortunately I couldn't find facilities good enough to feel safe and satisfied before I opened Irion."

Irion offers 36 rooms of varying sizes and high-end clinical equipment including computer tomography, X-ray and ultrasound machines. At the front door a shop sells everything from snacks to pet strollers.

Hotel fees range from 40,000 won ($35.26) to 200,000 won a night.

"People say it's nonsensical to spend all that money on animals, but we provide daily health checkups, a hygienic environment, large hotel rooms and an exercise area and I'm pretty sure this is not a high price," said Park.

"And as for the clinic, we have vet specialists for different body parts, even a herbal medicine vet and high-technology equipment that smaller hospitals don't possess."

Despite the price, Park said about 2,000 dogs and cats come to Irion every month for all sorts of services. During the summer vacation season, rooms are booked out.

Cho, 19, was not quibbling about cost after reclaiming his newly fragrant pooch. "The hospital is big and clean...I like it here and plan to come here once every two weeks to shower my dog," he said.

Another patron, Lee Ji-Hyun, said price was not a problem in return for good care. "Services are great and my babies love the place," she said of her two Maltese terriers and a Yorkshire terrier.

Increasingly affluent and urbanized South Koreans in recent decades have been cherishing dogs as companions.

The state-run Rural Development Administration estimates the pet dog industry was worth 1.8 trillion won ($1.58 billion) as of 2010 and growing at an average annual rate of 11 percent.

Nearly 20 percent of households have pets, according to official statistics, with about 95 percent of them owning dogs. But Park thinks the country still has some way to go.

"Korea is relatively slow in pet industry growth because it has unique traditions, such as raising animals out of the house, and some other extreme ones," she said, referring to eating dogmeat.

"But those are changing nowadays."

Eating dogs is a longstanding custom. But growing numbers of Koreans oppose the practice and consider it an international embarrassment.

In June last year the Korea Dog Farmers' Association cancelled a planned dogmeat festival following protests from animal rights activists.

The Rural Development Administration said Koreans have begun seeing dogs as partners for life rather than toys and started treating them as family members.

Park said there is still room for improvement in petiquette (pet etiquette) such as always using a lead outdoors and training dogs to behave.

"Owners still need to learn petiquette because I don't think we are quite there yet in terms of animal culture compared to other countries like the US and Japan," she said.

"What's so sad is that even up to now the largest number of dogs and cats are being adopted at Christmas and Children's Day...people must consider whether they are responsible enough to raise animals."

Park now operates four Irion multi-complexes and four which provide only veterinary treatment. She says she plans to open more in coming months.

Lucky baby golden eagle survives Utah wildfire

(July 8th 2012, Sunday)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A baby golden eagle is recovering at a wildlife rehabilitation facility after officials say it miraculously survived a Utah wildfire last month.

Kent Keller told The Salt Lake Tribune he feared the worst when he returned to the nest site west of Utah Lake to retrieve a leg band he had attached to the male eaglet June 1.

But the veteran Utah Division of Wildlife Resources volunteer found the burned bird alive on June 28 behind a charred tree, about 25 feet below the nest that was burned to a crisp in the 5,500-acre Dump Fire near Saratoga Springs.

"I thought there was no chance he would be alive. I was stunned when I saw him standing there," Keller said. "I thought maybe I could rebuild the nest a little bit, but I took a good look at him and realized that was not going to happen."

The 70-day-old eaglet had suffered burns on his talons, beak, head and wings. His flight feathers were melted down to within an inch or two of his wing and tail. He's very underweight at just over five pounds.

Keller realized the eagle would not fly for at least a year and that the parents eventually would stop providing food. Not a stick from the nest was left after the fire sparked by target shooters swept through

"I've seen nests burn before, but this is the first year I have seen one burn with young in it," he told the Tribune. "They are usually long gone and flying when fire season starts."

After permission was secured from state and federal wildlife agencies, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden assumed care of the eaglet this week.

"I wasn't sure he was going to make it," said DaLyn Erickson, executive director of the center. "He kind of had that look like he may have given up."

But the eagle named Phoenix has since taken to eating beef heart and venison. He's treated several times a day for his burns and seems to be gaining strength.

"He looks good now," said Amber Hansen, a member of the center's board of directors. "But we think if he had been there (at the nest site) another day, he probably would not have survived."

What seems to have saved his life during the fire was the insulation offered by his down feathers and once-thick body, according to the wildlife rehabilitation center.

Officials hope the bird can be released back into the wild next year, but say it's too early to tell about its future. Volunteers will work to keep him as wild as possible.

"It depends on how much follicle damage there is to his wings," Hansen said. "If they are not too burned, he should be able to molt into new feathers next year and hopefully be able to fly."