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| Park So-youn, head of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), enters Jongno Police Station in central Seoul, Thursday, to be questioned over her alleged euthanizing of some 250 animals secretly. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
The National Assembly Research Service has advised law revisions to better protect and manage animals at privately run shelters, according to its report, Sunday.
The advice comes after an allegation that Park So-youn, the head of animal rights group Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), euthanized hundreds of rescued dogs secretly due to a lack of space at the group's shelters.
According to the report, the number of private shelters is estimated at 150 nationwide, and the Animal Protection Act is not applied to them unlike facilities run by local governments.
So these shelters do not have regulations about euthanasia unlike the public ones where only vets administer it under strict rules and leave records.
"Rescue activity can become animal hoarding," the report said. "Keeping animals indiscriminately may lead to mass animal abuse."
The report advised relevant law changes to set criteria on private shelters and force animal groups to report their facilities to the authorities.
It also urged to expand shelters run directly by local governments: now there are 293 animal protection centers supervised by municipalities, but 253 of them are private ones to which the governments outsourced.
"The outsourced ones are selected mainly based on bidding prices, so they are likely to focus on seeking profit rather than animal welfare," the report said.
According to the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, some 102,500 animals were kept at the 293 centers in 2017. About 27 percent of them died natural deaths, 20.2 percent were euthanized, 30.2 percent were sent to new homes, and 14.5 percent were returned to their owners.
Last Thursday, Park was questioned by police over allegations that she had some 250 animals put down without the knowledge of CARE staffers and donors since 2015 after rescuing them mostly from dog farms. She is also accused of embezzling the group's funds.
