"Wild Dog Packs Appear, Even Self-Defense Items..." What’s Happening in Geomdan New Town?

Focus on Capturing Stray Dogs in Geomdan, Seo-gu, Incheon
"Development Zone Provides a Suitable Habitat for Stray Dogs"

Wild dogs, known as 'deulgae,' which are feral stray dogs, have been repeatedly appearing in the Incheon new town area, causing anxiety among nearby residents.

According to Incheon City on the 1st, a total of 135 deulgae were captured in the Incheon area from January this year to the 24th of last month. Notably, more than half of them, 72 dogs (53%), were captured in Seo-gu, with 56 of these concentrated in the Geomdan area where the new town was developed.

There were 79 complaints related to deulgae reported in Seo-gu in the first half of this year alone.

Resident A expressed on the Seo-gu Office website's complaint consultation board, "I cannot sleep at night because of the loud barking of the deulgae," and added, "I even bought self-defense tools because the deulgae chased me."

Resident B also complained, "There is a pack of eight deulgae, including medium and large-sized dogs, roaming around a nearby construction site," and said, "I have encountered them while walking my pet dog, and I am afraid that accidents involving biting people or dogs might occur."

Deulgae generally originate from abandoned pets or dogs that were kept in yards but got loose from their leashes. The Incheon City authorities analyzed that development zones like Geomdan New Town, which have fenced areas restricting human access, create favorable conditions for deulgae to breed.

As the population steadily flows into Geomdan New Town, the newly expanding residential areas overlap with the existing activity range of the deulgae, leading to increased encounters between the wild dogs and residents.

Most deulgae travel in packs, causing unease or damaging livestock and crops before being captured by the relevant district offices and private companies.

Since 2021, Incheon City has been investing 60 million KRW annually to support private companies with rewards for capturing deulgae. The payment to companies for capturing deulgae ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 KRW per adult dog and 100,000 to 150,000 KRW per puppy.

An official from the city stated, "This year, deulgae capture efforts are concentrated mainly in Seo-gu and Ganghwa-gun," and added, "We plan to continue the capture support project next year according to the requests from each county and district."

Additionally, Seo-gu in Incheon plans to support capture cages at administrative welfare centers in Geomdan to minimize response time to complaints and form a private capture team to improve work efficiency.