The Seoul city government teamed up with a county on Friday to set up a theme park for pet animals by 2027 in a move to meet the growing demand of pet owners, city officials said.

Under the agreement, the Seoul metropolitan government will handle the development and operation of the theme park while Yeoncheon County, located 60 kilometers north of Seoul, will be responsible for infrastructure construction and maintenance of the Imjin River area, which roughly flows along the boundary of South and North Korea.

The move came as the number of households with pets in South Korea exceeded the 3 million mark in 2020.

In Seoul alone, some 900,000 households — roughly one-fifth of the total households in the capital — were rearing nearly 1.14 million pets as of 2022.

Currently, there are only two public theme parks for pet animals in the capital area, which is not sufficient to meet the high demand of pet owners, city officials said.

The roughly 120,000-square-meter theme park, expected to be the largest scal
e in the capital yet, will feature camping sites, swimming pools, large-scale playgrounds and training centers, where people can be accompanied by companion animals, and a salon for pets.

A memorial site, including a crematorium and charnel houses for animals, will also be set up on a 5,000-square-meter site near the theme park, in an effort to help pet owners with their pet’s final send-off at a place not far from Seoul and at a relatively low cost, city officials said.

Over 130,000 bodies of dead pet animals end up in Seoul alone each year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency