Behold South Korea's adorable new First Dog
Dear internet -- please welcome your newest First Dog.
South Korea's president Moon Jae-in has officially adopted Tory, the shelter dog he promised to take in during his presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, he welcomed the little pooch into the country's presidential mansion:
Tory, a four-year-old black mixed breed dog, was introduced to the Blue House alongside Moon's other two pets -- Maroo, a dog; and Jjing-jjing, a cat.
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"As a society, we need to pay more attention to abandoned animals and care for them," the president said at a ceremony to officially welcome Tory to the Blue House. As many as 300,000 animals had been abandoned in the country, he added.
Administration officials had previously confirmed that they would bring Tory to the Blue House in May when the adoption process was complete.
Tory had been seen as unpopular with adopters, because of a stigma surrounding black dogs in Korea.
"Tory had to wait for two years to be adopted while his lighter-furred friends easily found new homes," Park Soyoun, the president of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), a Seoul-based shelter, told Reuters.
Tory had been kept on a meter-long (3.2 ft) leash in an abandoned farmhouse and fed scraps before he was rescued in 2015.
The dog was first thrust into the public spotlight when three animal groups -- including CARE -- started a nationwide campaign calling on presidential candidates to adopt a dog from their shelters after they were elected.
Soon after the campaign was launched, Moon promised to adopt Tory if he was elected.
The president -- an animal-friendly candidate who pledged to build more playgrounds for pets, as well as feeding facilities for stray cats -- said then that "both humans and animals have the right to be free from prejudice and discrimination."
Topics Animals
I am an intern with Mashable Asia, focusing on viral news, lifestyle news and feature news in the region.
