"Mass Starvation of Dogs, Worst Ever... Strong Punishment Needed"
Starving Dogs Found Dead at Chaotic Scene
Foul Odor Mistaken for Slaughterhouse Smell
Recently, over 1,400 dog carcasses were discovered in bulk at a house in Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi Province. Initially, the police estimated the number of carcasses to be around 300 to 400, but hundreds more were found behind the backyard.
A man in his 60s, Mr. A, who operated a junkyard, is suspected of bringing abandoned dogs to his home over the past three years and starving them to death by not feeding them.
The iron cage in the yard where the dogs were confined was a scene of utter chaos. The dogs, starved and neglected by Mr. A, are presumed to have survived by biting each other's bodies until they died. The rubber barrels and two large water tanks in his yard were filled with dog carcasses in a skeletal state, and hundreds of dog carcasses, already decomposed and unrecognizable, were stuck to the yard floor. Among the four dogs rescued on-site by the animal rights organization CARE, one was raised in the filthy environment where carcasses were left unattended and suffered genital necrosis, requiring surgery.
How did no one notice while over 1,400 dogs were dying?
Nearby residents revealed through various media outlets that the stench of rotting corpses from his front yard was unbearable. Since Mr. A brought in 2 to 7 dogs three to four times a week, residents knew he was raising multiple dogs. However, because Mr. A had also been involved in the slaughterhouse business in the past, they assumed the smell was related to that and did not suspect that he was bringing dogs home and starving them to death.
Because of this, some residents protested to Mr. A, but he had little interaction with the neighbors and did not clean up despite their complaints. The smell that tormented the residents is believed to have come from the rotting dog carcasses and the foul odor when they were burned.
Dog carcasses piled up in the yard of a house in Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi Province. [Image provided by Yonhap News Agency, Animal Rights Organization CARE]
This incident, which could have caused even greater harm, came to light thanks to a nearby resident who lost a pet dog. While searching for their lost dog, the resident found their pet among the junk piles at Mr. A’s house and reported it to the police.
On the 7th, the police applied for a pre-arrest warrant against Mr. A on charges of violating the Animal Protection Act. During the investigation, Mr. A stated, "While running the junkyard, I took in dogs that people could not keep for money, but I starved them because the price of dog food was expensive." The police plan to continue investigating the sources of the dogs and the abuse.
The animal rights organization CARE has called this case "the worst mass dog starvation incident in history" and is demanding strong punishment for Mr. A. CARE also filed a complaint accusing the breeding farm operators who supplied dogs to Mr. A as accomplices of animal abuse and neglect.
Kim Young-hwan, CEO of CARE, said this case should be approached from two perspectives. Kim stated, "If the breeding farm owners who supplied the dogs claim they were unaware of Mr. A’s abuse, it would be difficult to punish them, but that is a criminal issue," and emphasized, "To prevent such incidents from happening again, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the National Assembly must create related laws and systems."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
