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Soonmu, a cat adopted out by the animal rights group Nest, later raised abuse allegations towards the owener after being advised that the cat died whereas being drive‑fed / Courtesy of Nest
In 2024, a soldier stationed at a navy base in Daegu tortured a cat after it dirty his bedding. He strangled the animal with a fight boot lace and swung it by the neck. He then claimed to be “washing” the injured cat, forcing her to ingest water and hand sanitizer earlier than confining it inside a washer that was working.
His punishment? A 1.5 million gained ($1,050) effective.
The Daegu District Court docket cited the defendant’s confession, lack of a prison document, and previous volunteer work at a canine shelter as causes for leniency.
This ruling just isn’t an outlier. Regardless of public outrage, Korea’s judicial system continues handy down gentle sentences for animal cruelty, in response to authorized specialists and information evaluation.
A current case in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, reveals how far court docket rulings fall wanting justice. A farm proprietor was sentenced to at least one 12 months in jail after his negligence allowed a horse to flee, inflicting a deadly automobile accident. Investigators revealed that he had additionally starved eight horses to demise.
Nonetheless, the court docket mitigated the sentence — already close to the eight-month authorized minimal — by ruling that the horses doubtless “died of illness,” concluding that the defendant didn’t intend to kill them. Activists argued that the illness attributable to complete neglect is itself a type of abuse, criticizing the court docket for exhibiting leniency to an offender who already had two prior convictions for comparable ranges of cruelty.
A severely underweight horse discovered at a farm in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province / Courtesy of Beagle Rescue Community
Uncommon indictments, even rarer jail phrases
The information underscores this worrying development. Based on Choi Ji-soo, a lawyer with the animal rights group PNR, formal indictments for animal abuse stay uncommon.
Between 2010 and 2012, prosecutors didn’t formally indict a single Animal Safety Act violation. Since 2022, the formal indictment price has hovered at round 5 %, with the overwhelming majority of instances ending in abstract offenses or dropped costs.
A chart from a report by lawyer Choi Ji-soo from PNR, translated with synthetic intelligence, reveals the proportions of formal indictments, abstract indictments and nonindictment choices in Animal Safety Act instances. Courtesy of lawyer Choi Ji-soo
Court docket rulings observe the identical sample. An evaluation of 171 rulings from Might 2022 to June 2025 discovered that 60 of 84 defendants charged with killing an animal obtained fines — usually between 1 million gained and 5 million gained — whereas solely 4 had been sentenced to precise jail time. In instances involving damage, 71 of 87 defendants obtained fines, and all jail sentences had been suspended, which means no defendant served time in custody.
“Whereas the proportion of fines is lowering and jail sentences are rising barely, the numbers present little significant change in how harshly courts punish offenders,” Choi stated.
A chart from a report by lawyer Choi Ji-soo from PNR, translated with synthetic intelligence, reveals the proportions of fixed-term sentences, suspended jail sentences and financial penalties. Courtesy of lawyer Choi Ji-soo
Flawed tips?
Rulings over the previous three years present that judges have steadily cited components resembling a scarcity of prior convictions, superior age, or volunteer work at animal shelters as grounds for mitigation.
The Supreme Court docket Sentencing Fee launched sentencing tips for animal abusers final July to create clearer requirements. Nonetheless, critics argue the rules could reinforce leniency as a result of they’re primarily based on previous lenient rulings (2018–2023), probably entrenching present patterns of leniency.
“It’s exhausting to grasp why a one-time volunteer session at a shelter counts as a good consider instances of extreme abuse,” Choi stated. “The courts ought to deal with whether or not the defendant genuinely acknowledges the worth of life.”
Whereas the rules have minimized inconsistencies stemming from differing judicial consciousness of animal rights, many argue that they need to be tightened going ahead to forestall even lighter penalties.
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Instances.
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