President Yoon Seok-yeol and his wife, Kim Gun-hee, made a surprise appearance on “TV Animal Farm.
President Yoon Seok-yeol and his wife, Kim Gun-hee메이저놀이터, revealed on SBS’s “TV Animal Farm” on Dec. 28 that the retired service dog they adopted last December is living at the presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Seoul.
Sae Rom Yi, a Labrador retriever born in 2013, is a retired guide dog who lived with blind Kim Han-sook for more than six years and was adopted by the Yoon family as their 11th pet on Christmas last year.
In addition to Sarom, the Yoon family currently has five dogs (Tori, Narae, Mari, Sunny, and Ollie) and five cats (Saetang, Butterfly, Yellow, Kiwi, and White).
“Hello, I’m Yoon Seok-yeol, dad to Sarom, Marie, Sunny, and Tori,” Yoon said, and Mrs. Kim introduced herself as “Kim Gun-hee, their mom.”
“When I was a candidate, I went to a guide dog school in Yongin, and I said, ‘If I get elected (to the presidency) and go to the official residence with a yard, I want to get a retirement guide dog,'” Mr. Yoon said, explaining how he adopted Sarom into his family on Christmas Day last year.
“All the dogs and cats like him a lot more (than my mom),” Kim said.
President Yoon then laughed, saying, “(Mrs. Kim) likes to train, so I’ll do right paw, left paw, and so on, and if I don’t feed him and keep training him, he’ll run to me and just ask for it.”
There is also a scene where President Yoon is in the kitchen preparing food for his dogs, saying, “It’s good enough for me to eat,” and “Saerom eats slowly.”
“He had a child and then lost him, and it was very difficult for him psychologically, but when he adopted a stray dog, he liked it so much and forgot about the pain for a while because he thought about feeding it to his children,” Kim recalled.
“Originally, I was supposed to be a temporary caretaker for the dog, but after a day, I realized I had to keep it,” she said, adding, “It just kept growing because of my dad.”
“There are many dogs that serve special purposes, and since they have served the country and society, I think it is right that the country and society should pay for a certain part of their medical treatment,” Yoon said, “so that it is easier to adopt them and accompany them.”
When asked if they would come up with a policy within their term, they replied, “We will try.”
“Don’t buy, adopt,” Yoon told viewers at the end of the broadcast.