Why Do Some People in Seoul Feed Cats and Pigeons?
Walk through Seoul and you may notice two seemingly ordinary scenes.
In a quiet neighborhood, someone leaves a bowl of cat food and water near a building. A few streets away, someone scatters food for pigeons in a park.
Both actions may come from the same simple feeling: I don't want an animal to go hungry.
But in Seoul, cats and pigeons are not viewed in quite the same way.
And that difference reveals something interesting about how a modern city tries to live with animals.
Who Are Seoul's “Cat Moms”?
In Korea, people who regularly care for stray or free-roaming cats are often called “cat moms,” or 캣맘 (kaet-maem).
Some feed cats, provide water, monitor their health, and participate in TNR — trap, neuter, and return — programs.
For these people, feeding a cat can be an act of compassion. They may see the animals as vulnerable creatures that have nowhere else to go.
But there is another side to the story.
For some residents, a food bowl outside their home is not necessarily a welcome sight.
Residents have complained about nighttime cat noises, feces, damaged garbage bags, cats gathering around parked cars, and food being left in public or residential spaces.
These complaints are not simply a conflict between people who “like animals” and people who “hate animals.” In some neighborhoods, people are dealing with a real question:
Who should bear the consequences when someone else's act of kindness affects the shared living environment?
This is one reason Seoul has tried to move away from completely informal feeding.
The city and individual districts have introduced designated feeding stations and TNR programs. Some public feeding stations were specifically created to reduce conflicts between people who care for cats and nearby residents while also keeping feeding areas cleaner and more manageable.
In other words, the question is no longer simply whether cats should be fed.
It is also where, how, and under what conditions they should be fed.
Then What About the “Pigeon Moms”?
The same question becomes even more complicated when we look at pigeons.
Pigeons are everywhere in Seoul: around subway stations, plazas, parks, bridges, and busy tourist areas.
Some people still feel sympathy for them and feed them.
But public attitudes toward pigeons are generally much less forgiving.
The reason is partly practical.
Large concentrations of pigeons can produce droppings, noise, odors, and damage or contamination around public facilities. Seoul also considers human-provided food an important factor in increasing pigeon populations and concentrating them in urban areas.
The city's response has therefore become much stricter.
Since July 2025, feeding pigeons has been prohibited in designated areas. Seoul currently has 38 such areas, including major parks, plazas, and sections of the Han River parks. In these areas, violations can result in fines of 200,000 won for the first offense, 500,000 won for the second, and up to 1 million won for the third or subsequent offense.
So a person who feeds a pigeon may think:
“I'm just helping a hungry animal.”
The city sees a different issue:
“What happens when thousands of people make the same choice in the same public space?”
Why Is Feeding a Cat Different From Feeding a Pigeon?
This may be the most interesting question of all.
Both are animals living alongside humans.
Both can become dependent on food provided by people.
Both can create conflicts over cleanliness, noise, and public space.
Yet Seoul's approach to them is different.
With stray cats, the city has developed systems involving TNR, designated feeding areas, and cooperation with animal-care groups. With pigeons, the emphasis has increasingly been on preventing people from feeding them in designated public areas.
Perhaps the difference is not simply about which animal is “cute.”
It is also about how a city understands the animal's place in the urban environment.
A cat may be seen as an abandoned or vulnerable animal that humans have a responsibility to care for.
A pigeon may be seen as a wild animal that has adapted too successfully to human environments.
And that leads to a fascinating contradiction:
The same human action — giving food to an animal — can be considered compassionate in one situation and harmful in another.
Is There a Right Side?
Probably not an easy one.
A person feeding a stray cat may genuinely be trying to help an animal survive.
A resident complaining about that feeding may genuinely be struggling with noise, smell, garbage, or other problems.
A person feeding pigeons may feel the same compassion.
And a city official may be thinking about thousands of people who share the same park.
All of them can have understandable reasons.
Perhaps the real challenge for Seoul is not deciding whether people should care about animals.
It is deciding how that care can exist without making other people's lives unnecessarily difficult.
That may be the future of urban animal welfare: not simply feeding animals, and not simply preventing people from feeding them, but creating rules and spaces where humans and animals can coexist more responsibly.
In a city as dense and busy as Seoul, even a small bowl of food can become a surprisingly big question.
Who owns the sidewalk?
Who decides what kindness looks like?
And how much space should animals have in a city built primarily for people?
Those are questions Seoul is still trying to answer.
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