Provincial city to rebury pigs` corpses amid public outcry

The city of Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, reversed a decision Tuesday to permit a company to pull out 4,515 pigs culled due to foot-and-mouth disease in November last year from their burial ground.

Under permission, the company took out the pigs` corpses from the burial ground Monday to build a golf course there.

Due to the strong backlash from residents after The Dong-A Ilbo reported the removal of the animal corpses, however, the city belatedly said it will bury them again where they were pulled out.

Despite the reversal, the Icheon city government remains under fire for recklessly granting permission to remove the pigs` corpses.

The 4,515 corpses pulled out from the burial ground, which is part of a construction site of a golf course covering 28,330 square meters, were reburied Tuesday.

Deputy Icheon Mayor Kim Chang-gyu, who visited the burial ground at 8:30 a.m. the same day, told a Dong-A reporter, “No problems have arisen since tests found no pathogenic germs, but we have decided to bury them again considering public opinion and resistance from residents.”

The city had initially planned to seal the corpses in plastic bags and cover them with bricks and steel-framed structures on 1,914 square meters of land.

The construction company said, however, “This is the lawful exercise of property rights.”

Company manager Goh Yeong-man added, “When foot-and-mouth disease broke out, farmers who raised pigs by renting land here buried the culled pigs without consultations with landowners,” adding, “Because of this, the landowners couldn’t exercise their property rights, which is regrettable.”

Lee Cheon-soo, in charge of resource management at the Icheon city government, said, “The provisionary clause of Article 24 of the Law on Animal Infectious Disease Prevention says burial grounds can be dug out if city, ward, and county heads approve under prior consultations with the food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister and the environment minister,” adding, “We have proceeded with this under standard procedure, including the pathogenic test.”

Residents near the construction site are angry, however. A farmer who raises cattle nearby said, “We haven’t heard a word about the excavation of the burial ground,” adding, “Livestock farmers are concentrated in this place. The city should have at least notified us.”

Another livestock farmer said, “When the infectious disease broke out, all vehicles were banned from entering our village. We couldn’t bring feed in, almost losing our all animals,” adding, “Civil servants have handled things without considering livestock farmers, who are living under constant fear of foot-and-mouth disease.”

“It stinks, but they say there`s no germs. This is absurd.”

The construction site for the golf course is owned by a person and his family in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. Work began in September and will be completed Aug. 30, 2013. The burial ground is not part of the golf course, however.

sunggyu@donga.com mck@donga.com