201: The Hopes
The name "Somang-i" was the affectionate nickname the medical volunteer team Lee Jun belonged to, 'Woori Hamkke', had given to the caged bears they rescued.
Back in university, when Lee Jun first heard the term 'caged bear' from his seniors in 'Woori Hamkke', he felt a deep unease.
It was true that zookeepers fed and cared for the bears in the bear enclosures. But Lee Jun had never heard anyone refer to the bears in the zoo as 'caged bears'. So, he asked his senior, "Caged bears? Are you talking about the bears in the zoo?"
After that, the stories he heard from the seniors about the caged bears were shocking.
The caged bears weren't the bears in the zoo, but bears raised in tiny, cramped wire cages that were smaller than just two pyeong.
They were literally bears being farmed.
Just for the sake of the 19 grams of bile that could be extracted from them.
So, what kind of bears were these caged bears?
When Lee Jun first went to the farm where the caged bears were raised for his volunteer work, he was shocked.
He had heard the stories from the seniors, but the sight of the bears living in such narrow and filthy enclosures that words couldn't even describe was overwhelming.
Under the wire cages with holes in the floor, there was a pile of excrement.
A narrow trough, shaped like a gutter, was attached outside the rusty wire cage, filled with food scraps.
The stench was so bad it was enough to numb the nose.
In that place where it was hard to even breathe, the bears extended their front paws through the gaps in the cage bars to grab the food scraps with their mouths.
That was their food.
Lee Jun saw a bear grabbing a piece of rotten bread with black mold growing on it and bringing it to its mouth with its front paw, and he was furious.
The sight of the bears eating the food scraps with a desperate expression, as if they didn't want to look at them because of the terrible stench, made Lee Jun feel like his eyes were about to roll back.
He ran out of there and immediately dashed to the nearest large tree, pounding it with his fists without thinking.
It was because the caged bears were so pitiful.
He felt sorry for the bears who were barely surviving by eating food scraps surrounded by stench.
He felt incredibly pathetic that he couldn't do anything for those bears.
Lee Jun hit the tree with his fists over and over.
The innocent tree took all the beating, but Lee Jun was the one who got hurt.
With bloody fists, he kept hitting the tree.
It was his senior, Kang Han-ul, who was on the phone, who stopped him.
Anyone who first sees the caged bears reacts the same way as you, he said.
While you're angry, go clean for them. Every time you shovel, remove the excrement. That is the way to help the bears.
Lee Jun came to his senses and went back to the wire cage.
As the senior said, he picked up the shovel and removed the excrement, and emptied the food scrap bucket that was piled up.
He filled it with the bananas, melons, watermelons, and feed that they had brought.
The bears looked bewildered, but soon they were overjoyed to taste the fresh fruits, unable to contain their excitement.
There were bears smiling brightly like sunflowers, bears gently smiling like the Mona Lisa smile while holding a banana precious, bears with faces furrowed as if they had never used their smiling muscles, laughing as if crying.
Among them, there was a bear that caught Lee Jun's attention. It was a very small baby bear, smaller than Lee Jun's knee.
The baby bear looked up at Lee Jun with black eyes and smiled. It was holding a banana in its front paw.
But that bear was Haennim-i, the Asiatic black bear.
Lee Jun's mind snapped back to attention, and only then did he look closely at the other bears.
When he first saw the bears, he was angry and hadn't looked properly. Then, feeling too sorry, he hadn't been able to look properly at the bears.
All the bears in the cage were Asiatic black bears.
Critically endangered and an international endangered species.
Why were these bears, who deserved the best treatment, here like this?
Lee Jun was dumbfounded.
His seniors answered his question.
The caged bears were the ones brought from Asia, that is, Japan or Southeast Asia, and they were not protected species. Since the 1970s, the import of wild animals including bears had increased rapidly.
The reason was the spread of the belief that bear bile was good for the body, increasing the consumption of bile.
When the trade in bears for bile extraction became active, in 1981, the government encouraged bear farming to increase farm profits.
Since they couldn't farm domestic Asiatic black bears, they imported bears from Japan, Southeast Asia, etc. These bears became the caged bears.
It was just because they were a different subspecies, 'subspecies', that they were not protected, even though they were the same 'Asiatic black bear' that became a natural monument.
There are 8 subspecies of Asiatic black bears.
Among them, the Asiatic black bear subspecies designated as a natural monument is the 'Ussuri subspecies', mainly inhabiting the Korean Peninsula and the Primorsky Krai region.
The caged bears are the subspecies 'Formosan black bear' and 'Indonesian black bear' imported from Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, etc.
In the end, it was because the subspecies was different that they were not protected.
Lee Jun was angry again.
And he made a vow.
The rusty wire cages with holes in the floor where small baby bears couldn't even walk properly, and large bears couldn't move because they were too narrow.
Wire cages that had to face rain and snow with their whole bodies because they were full of holes everywhere.
Wire cages that had to endure the hot sun and strong winds intact.
Wire cages without doors, where they had to live their entire lives because they could only go out when they were dying to take the bile, living the life of a condemned prisoner.
Then, as the popularity of the bile, which was so expensive it could buy an apartment in Gangnam in the 80s, faded, the treatment of the bears became even worse.
Looking at these caged bears, Lee Jun made a vow.
Later, I will earn a lot of money, build a very wide and comfortable home, an Animal Sanctuary, and buy all the caged bears and release them into the wild.
So that they can walk and run on soft soil.
So that they can play rolling on the grass floor.
Lee Jun decided to build the Animal Sanctuary.
And when Lee Jun was a university student, he heard that to prevent the breeding of caged bears, they performed castration surgeries.
Lee Jun, right after graduating from university and getting his license, participated in the castration surgery for caged bears.
Just that alone, Lee Jun thought he was lucky.
So that the caged bears wouldn't increase anymore.
Time passed, and finally, the bear farming was scheduled to end.
By 2026, the name 'caged bear' would disappear. It meant the end of the heartbreaking history of caged bears for over 40 years.
Now, only the task of making the caged bears happy remained.
The admirable caged bears who survived in poor environments.
"You know, don't you? Haennim-i is going to the United States."
Haennim-i was the baby bear who was smiling brightly while holding a banana when Lee Jun first visited the caged bear facility.
The next time he visited, it was a baby bear whose front paw was amputated.
Whether due to stress or bitten by a bear in the adjacent cage, he didn't know for sure.
But anyway, on that day, when Lee Jun came home, he cried his heart out.
What sin did that small, cute bear have to live through such pain?
And when he met her next time, he gave her the name 'Haennim-i'.
Like the sun, a bright and hopeful future would come.
That day, each of the bears got their own names.
And 'Woori Hamkke' no longer called the caged bears 'caged bears'.
They called them Somang-i.
To embody the hope that they would one day play freely in the sanctuary.
And over time, with the efforts and donations of many citizens, the caged bears were rescued.
And many activists including 'Woori Hamkke' were taking care of those caged bears.
But because they couldn't find a large enough place, most of the bears were still unable to escape the narrow cage life.
For those caged bears, Korea was planning its first Animal Sanctuary.
But before that, about 20 of them were to be relocated to an Animal Sanctuary in the United States, a wildlife protection facility.
Haennim-i was included in that lucky group.
"Yes, I know."
"Actually, there's talk about it. What if we treat Haennim-i, whose health is not good, as another Somang-i?"
"It would be better for a healthy Somang-i to go, right?"
"That's right. Haennim-i doesn't have much time left. But you know, in our country, the Animal Sanctuary is going to open soon. I wonder if that 'soon' will be for Haennim-i too."
Lee Jun understood what the senior was saying.
Could Haennim-i, who didn't have much time left, wait for the opening of the Animal Sanctuary in Korea?
He wanted to let her step on the ground for a while.
"That would be it. The plan was said to be in a few months, but who knows how it will turn out. They're building in two places, but it's not a scale that can accommodate all of them."
"That's right. And whether our Haennim-i can go there or not is uncertain. So, I really want Haennim-i to go there. Ah, I'm not the only one thinking that. Many people think like me."
"Then, if we just treat the butt necrosis, she can go?"
"Yes. She's on antibiotics now, but you know, they chew on everything."
"Especially, Haennim-i really chews on everything. But senior, Haennim-i likes honey, right? If we spread honey, she might eat it well?"
"I tried. It didn't work either."
The bears have the habit of chewing everything, so it's not easy to feed them medicine.
They spit out the bitter taste, and even if you hide the capsule in the food, they notice and spit it out.
"So, right now, Haennim-i can't even take the medicine properly. Moreover, since her butt hurts, she keeps scratching and biting it. So it's getting worse. And recently, she doesn't want to eat well, maybe because the pain is getting worse."
"It's really worrying."
"That's right. She's suffered a lot. Watching her mom go in front of her eyes too..."
Haennim-i had lived with her mom in a place about two pyeong.
Haennim-i is said to have hugged her mom who had fallen and stayed with her for a week. 'Woori Hamkke' contacted and came, and Lee Jun faced Haennim-i's cloudy eyes.
Those empty-looking eyes.
When thinking of Haennim-i, the bright smile from the first day and the empty gaze from that day came to mind at the same time.
"Poor Haennim-i."
"So, can't you take care of her? If you just remove the dead tissue, clean and dress it, she might get better. You know how good you are at that."
It meant to use minimal anesthesia so as not to burden the group.
Perhaps it was also a way to say that the current situation wasn't great.
"..."
What to do?
Lee Jun hesitated.
Normally, if such a request came, Lee Jun would immediately say he'd go without thinking.
But now, he was hesitating. 'Can I really endure this?'
Lee Jun had been splitting his rest days since university to go to Uriteul Shelter in Namyangju, and rushed to places like Hwacheon, Donghae, Yongin where the caged bears were being cared for.
After opening the Mongmong Animal Hospital, Lee Jun only visited Uriteul twice.
Even during the busy time of preparing to open, Lee Jun made time to go.
The reason was... 'I couldn't handle it.'
After being able to understand the animals' words, when Lee Jun went to see the caged bears, he received an overwhelming shock.
The same place as the first visit.
Although the caged bears lived in wire cages, the place had become incredibly clean compared to before.
The floor was clean, the water was clean, and the food was feed, fruits, sweet potatoes, etc.
But Lee Jun was gripped by an indescribable sense of guilt from the bears' mumbling. 'What is that? What are they going to that place?' 'I want to walk around like them too.' 'I want to go there.' 'I want to run like them in front of that.' 'What do you want to go to?' 'Idiot, they're running there. I want to go there too!' 'So what do you want to go to?' 'What do you mean running?'
All the bears were chatting while walking back and forth near the cage bars with their black eyes sparkling.
The bear that said "I want to run."
The bear who didn't understand what "go there" meant.
But those bears were still hopeful bears.
"I want to become like my mom."
"Me too. I want to become like Maru. Then I can get out of here."
"I want to get out of here too."
The Asiatic black bears who wanted to die, remembering their moms and friends who had passed away without breathing anymore, had gotten out of the cage.
To the bears who were speaking their hopes and spitting out despair, Lee Jun could do nothing.
He just placed fruits and feed in front of them.
It was impossible to treat them without anesthesia.
After that day, Lee Jun couldn't step foot anywhere because he felt sorry for the bears, the Somang-i, that he couldn't fulfill what they wished, and that he was too incompetent.
He was just supporting them.
But Lee Jun knew.
He couldn't ignore them forever.
"If you're busy, it's fine..."
"I'll go. Shall we go tomorrow right away?"
Lee Jun answered with courage.
"Huh? Weren't you busy?"
"It's fine. Our teachers are really capable."
"T-Then that's good. Do you know where it is?"
"Of course, if I go to Donghae, it should be fine."
"Okay, then I'll assume you'll come tomorrow."
"If you have a photo of Haennim-i, please send it to me? It would be better for surgery if I can see the wound."
"Thank you. Lee Jun-ah."
"Then I'll go early tomorrow."
"Okay. Then I'll send Haennim-i's photo right away."
After the call ended, the photo arrived immediately.
Lee Jun's face distorted when he saw the photo.
"This is no joke."
While looking at the photo of Haennim-i's wound, Lee Jun recalled a bear from a zoo in a foreign country a few years ago whose butt area had severe necrosis, leading to systemic infection, and eventually had to be euthanized.