HWACHEON FISH FESTIVAL IN SOUTH KOREA: ANIMAL SLAUGHTER IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT
January 11, 2025 - LCA and Animal Liberation Wave (ALW, our S. Korea sister organization) staged a protest calling for the immediate end to the Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival, held annually in Hwacheon County, a small rural area in Gangwon Province, South Korea. Since its inception in 2003, the festival is a mass fish slaughter that kills hundreds of thousands of Korean native mountain trout, known as sancheoneo, for entertainment.
Activists gathered on a bridge near the "bare-handed fishing" area, dropping 15' x 30' banner that read, "Animal Slaughter is Not a Festival" and "Sancheoneo Deserve to Live". LCA/ALW are calling on Hwacheon County to immediately end the festival and adopt an animal-free alternative. TAKE ACTION HERE.
To stage the festival, 400,000-600,000 trout are intensively farmed, transported, and starved for 5-7 days before being confined to overcrowded, ice-covered ponds. Festival attendees catch and consume fish directly from artificial ponds and tanks. During the festival, trout die from hooks, stress and injuries; or succumb to exhaustion and starvation. The sancheoneo are native to colder regions of Korea and do not naturally inhabit Hwacheon.
This is not a celebration; it is animal abuse and a blatant disregard for the suffering of these fish. Despite this, the Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival continues to attract over 1.5 million visitors annually.
 LCA/ALW Banner Drop |
 LCA/ALW Banner Drop |
 Overview of Festival |
 Protester |
 Banner Drop During Event |
 Fish Suffering |
 Protesters |
 Press Conference |
 Bare Hand Fishing |
 Fish Suffering |
 Fish Suffering |
 Overview of Festival |
CRUELTY OF THE FESTIVAL:
- Sancheoneo only reproduce in rivers connected to the sea, naturally inhabiting the coastal regions of Gangwon Province. To supply sancheoneo for the festival, Hwacheon County contracts over ten trout farms to supply fish. Farms artificially inseminate fish around October or November.
- Before the festival, the sancheoneo are starved for five days prior to transport. During the transport process, fish experience significant stress, partly due to filthy and contaminated water. The head of Hwacheon County's Agricultural Policy Department stated, "Sancheoneo experience a lot of stress...when they are packed tightly in vehicles, some regurgitate, die, or faint...".
- The Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival primarily operates two programs: bare-handed fishing and ice-fishing. Both programs involve acts that violate Article 10 of S. Korea's Animal Protection Act, which prohibits killing animals in public places; causing harm to animals for entertainment; and killing animals in front of others of the same species. These acts constitute animal cruelty.
- The bare-handed fishing experience is considered the highlight of the festival. Sancheoneo are caught by hand and ripped out of the water, causing them significant stress and physical harm. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) advises fish should not be exposed to air for more than 15 seconds.
- Many sancheoneo die en masse. The primary causes are weakened immune systems due to stress and infections from aquatic pathogens caused by fishing injuries. Many of these deaths occur among the fish that remain in the water and are not caught during the festival.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Sign LCA/ALW's petition HERE urging Hwacheon County to end the Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival and replace it with a humane, animal-free alternative. This event contradicts growing global values of animal rights and causes immense suffering to sancheoneo, the trout used for the festival. Fish are sentient beings capable of feeling fear and pain, yet the festival subjects them to stress, injuries and inhumane death.