New Delhi: A new trend has emerged in South Korea—‘pet tarot’. It has become a niche industry in the Asian country, driven by a significant rise in pet ownership as households increasingly opt out of having children. Sessions, costing roughly 20,000 won or approximately Rs 1314, allow owners to explore the behaviours and anxieties of their pets through custom, animal-focused card decks.
According to Reuters, pet owners in Seoul seek insights into their animals’ emotional and physical health through specialised, affordable ‘pet tarot’ sessions. The practice involves pets interacting with custom cards to address issues like anxiety or past trauma.
Khan, a greyhound, places a paw on one of the tarot cards placed in front of him. Hwang Soo-kyung, a tarot reader and owner of Ace Sophia fortune-telling parlour in Gangnam district, said that the image that Khan chose indicates anxiety regarding the five puppies brought up by the pet dog.
“These feelings Khan experiences are something vets or dog trainers don’t know, since it doesn’t manifest as a major issue to them,” Khan’s owner Ahn told Reuters.
According to Soo-kyung, once the tarot card therapy starts for the pet dogs, there is no going back for the owners, who keep on revisiting her shop.
“No clients have ever limited themselves to just one session,” she told Reuters. “They come back because once you start asking what your dog is thinking, you can’t really stop.”
Animals over kids
According to the South Korean government, 25.4 per cent of households in the country are raising pets at their current residence. Of all animals being raised, most are dogs (75.6 per cent), followed by cats (27.7 per cent) and fish (7.3 per cent), among others.
South Korea has the world’s lowest birth rate, and families are increasingly adopting or buying pets for their household.
“The average monthly cost of raising one pet (including veterinary expenses) was found to be approximately 1,50,000 won (Rs 9,845). The average monthly cost of raising a child for people in their 20s is about 2,10,000 won (Rs 13,783), which is higher than other age groups, and for single-person households it is 1,70,000 won (Rs 11158), which is higher than for households with two or more people,” the South Korean government said in the press release.
The average monthly cost of raising an animal (including veterinary expenses) increased by approximately 30,000 won compared to the previous year, it added.
South Korea’s total fertility rate has hit historically low levels, hovering around 0.80 births per woman. Despite massive financial incentives and a recent temporary, pandemic-related rebound in marriages, the country remains stuck in a deep long-term demographic crisis.
A few factors that fuel this decline are financial independence and neo-Confucian beliefs, among others.
“The first significant factor related to the low fertility rate in South Korea is the high economic uncertainty due to rising living costs. Many Koreans struggle to achieve financial independence and move out of their parents homes, which is a barrier to starting a family. The second factor is the rising number of women obtaining higher levels of education and subsequently entering the workforce. The last factor is the practice of neo-Confucianism beliefs that are patriarchal in nature,” states a study by the University of California.