Dog found with feet cut off amid calls for harsher animal abuse punishments

Multiple reports of severe acts of abuse towards dogs have surfaced in South Korea recently, fueling calls for harsher criminal punishment against such acts of cruelty.

Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, a local animal rights group, posted a video on its official YouTube page last week of a Jindo dog that was found with all four of its feet severed. The group said that it suspects the injury to be a deliberate act of animal abuse, as all four legs were severed at the same spot on the ankle.

CARE has vowed to request a police investigation into the matter.

The story comes just two weeks after three men in their 20s allegedly shot hundreds of BB gun pellets at four dogs that were tied up outside a restaurant, killing one dog and inflicting severe eye injuries on two others. It was later discovered that two of the attackers were active soldiers, and the three men had trespassed on the restaurant's property to attack the animals.

The three claimed that they retaliated after being bitten by the dogs, but police were unable to find evidence of the dogs biting the men in surveillance footage. The dogs' owner said last week that the parents of the suspects came to their home to issue a threat for reporting the animal abuse case.

South Korea's Animal Protection Act bans killing or acts of cruelty against animals without justifiable causes, imposing a maximum punishment of three years in jail or a fine of up to 30 million won ($21,700). Though this was raised from two years imprisonment or a 20 million won fine in the past, some claim that many individuals accused of animal abuse escape with relatively lenient punishment.

Of the 4,221 people investigated for animal cruelty from 2017 to 2022, only 122 (2.9 percent) were tried, and 19 received a jail term, according to a report compiled by Rep. Song Gi-heon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and released last year. Most cases were dropped or were subjected to summary orders.

Even among those who were tried, more than half (56.9 percent) received a fine.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in February released a five-year animal welfare plan, which includes banning those convicted of animal abuse from raising animals for a designated period of time. The exact guidelines and criteria will be set in discussions with experts and law-related branches of the government, and set for implementation by 2027.

Other plans include imposing higher fines on abandoning animals, up from the current 3 million won, and mandating that all animals be registered with the authorities.

Last week, Rep. Park Jeong-ha of the main opposition People Power Party proposed a law revision that would impose stricter punishments on animal cruelty. This includes a prison term or up to a 10 million won fine for those abandoning animals.

According to the lawmaker's office, a survey conducted on 5,000 Koreans by the Agriculture Ministry showed that 87.8 percent of respondents said there needs to be harsher punishment for animal abuse.