70. Consumers’ perception of fish welfare in South Korea

Abstract

Despite their sentient ability, fish are protected with limitations against anthropocentric use. International animal welfare norms are widely accepted, but species inequality still exists. Fish welfare is a topic yet addressed in academia and animal protection organizations in South Korea, one of the countries with the highest consumption of aquatic products in the world, routinely consuming live fish. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the public perception of and intention to care for fish welfare. A survey was designed to explore: (1) general awareness of fish; (2) awareness of the current status of farmed fish welfare; (3) improvement measures for fish welfare; and (4) attitude toward animals in general (AAS). We collected survey data from an online panel survey of 1000 people with a population-proportional allocation to 17 cities and provinces in South Korea (May 7th to 11th, 2021). Although 89.2% of the participants agreed that the suffering of fish during slaughter should be minimized, only half of them considered the live fish transport can be a painful experience for fish. Totally 38.5% of the participants agreed that we should protect fish by animal protection law. According to the regression analysis, those aware of fish’s emotions and learning ability, felt negative emotions when seeing fish slaughter, and had pro-animal attitudes (high AAS-10) were likely to consent to legal protection for fish (adjusted R=0.295, P=0.000). Although 60.2% of the participants are enjoying it, 54.8% of them had the intention to stop eating live fish for animal welfare reasons. According to the regression analysis, women, the older generation, the unmarried were likely to stop eating live fish for animal welfare reasons (adjusted R2=0.377, P=0.000). The older, female and unmarried respondents showed a higher tendency to give up buying live fish for welfare. Also, those who had more negative emotions when seeing fish slaughter and stronger pro-animal attitudes show a higher intention to stop eating live fish. This study will serve as an initial point for establishing policy directions for improving the welfare of aquaculture fish in East Asia and expanding the scope of the animal protection regulation.