"My Dog at Home Is Waste?"... Illegal to Bury Pet Corpses in the Ground

Handling of Household and Medical Waste or Use of Funeral Service Providers
However, Due to Various Constraints, Burial Remains the Most Common Method

Although illegal under current law, burying deceased companion animals in the ground is the most common method, according to statistics. This is because it is difficult to dispose of companion animal carcasses as waste, and there are various restrictions on using pet funeral service providers.

[Image source=Pixabay]

According to data received by Democratic Party lawmaker Im Hoseon from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the National Assembly inspection on the 8th, the number of companion animal carcass disposals in the past three years reached 121,151 in 2023, a 96.4% increase compared to 61,681 in 2021.

When a companion animal dies, current laws require disposal as household waste or medical waste, or use of animal funeral facilities. However, many people find it difficult to treat their pets as waste due to the long time spent together. Additionally, the cost of using funeral facilities is known to be expensive. In fact, the cost of cremating a companion animal alone is at least 200,000 KRW, and with additional service options, it often ranges from 1.5 million to 3 million KRW. Moreover, not only are the costs high, but the absolute number of funeral facilities is also a problem. As of 2024, there are only 75 animal funeral businesses nationwide, and there are none on Jeju Island.

For these reasons, burying the carcass directly in the ground accounted for the highest proportion at 54.4%. Following that were ▲use of animal funeral services (16.6%), ▲entrusting disposal to animal hospitals (9.4%), and ▲disposing in designated waste bags (4.9%).

Lawmaker Im stated, "While the number of companion animal funeral businesses is extremely insufficient, a pilot operation of mobile animal funeral services is underway, but currently only in two locations," and urged, "The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs must include provisions for the post-mortem treatment of companion animals in the comprehensive animal welfare plan to be established next year."

Meanwhile, according to the '2022 Public Awareness Survey on Animal Protection' announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in February, the number of households raising dogs and cats as companion animals exceeded 8 million as of 2022. Additionally, 65.7% of survey respondents reported having experience raising companion animals.