"Thousands of Shots Fired" Three Soldiers Shoot BB Guns... Pet Dog Passes Away

Active-Duty Soldiers Fire BB Guns at Elderly Dogs
All Around 10 Years Old, One Dog Dies in the End

Three men in their 20s in Geoje, Gyeongnam, are under police investigation for shooting four dogs tied up in a yard with BB pellets. Among them, one dog ultimately died.

On June 18, JTBC News reported on an animal abuse incident that occurred in Geoje, Gyeongnam, on June 8. According to footage captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) near a restaurant at the time, three men were seen shining lights and wandering around for over an hour, throwing stones, and aiming a gun. They were also seen crouching and firing white BB pellets. The CCTV footage clearly showed the frightened dogs retreating into their house.

As a result, two of the four dogs in the yard were seriously injured, and one eventually died. In particular, the eyes of SomSom, a seven-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, were severely swollen and red, and her entire body was covered in bruises. Another dog, nine-year-old Maehwa, suffered serious injuries to her eyes and inside her mouth. SomSom did not survive even two days. All of the dogs were elderly, around ten years old.

The owner discovered the injured dogs only the next morning and reported the incident to the police. The perpetrators were identified as three men in their 20s who had been staying at a neighboring pension, and it is known that two of them are active-duty soldiers. According to the owner, the father of the perpetrator brothers abruptly visited and offered to pay compensation, and the military unit to which the perpetrators belonged made an unreasonable phone call asking not to publicize the incident. The perpetrators claimed that after drinking alcohol, they approached the dogs and were bitten, and that they returned out of anger and fired warning shots. They insisted, "We had no intention of killing or hitting the dogs," and stated, "We fired around the house to scare them."

The Animal Protection Act allows for a maximum prison sentence of three years for killing or causing the death of an animal without justifiable reason or by cruel methods. According to data released by the National Police Agency, the number of violations of the Animal Protection Act has steadily increased, with 1,074 cases in 2021, 1,181 cases in 2022, 1,146 cases in 2023, and 1,293 cases in 2024. In addition, the nature and severity of animal abuse crimes are becoming increasingly serious.