By Yi Whan-woo
A former Buddhist monk was sentenced to six months in prison for beating a dog to death with an ax last year, the Busan District Court said Monday.
The court said it decided to hand down a jail term to the 54-year-old ex-monk, surnamed Kim, considering the brutal nature of his crime. He was guilty of killing a neighbor’s pet for barking at night.
Kim was indicted for killing the dog after animal advocates in May reported the incident on their website, calling for him to be punished and criticizing the police for their inaction.
The civic group, the Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, posted surveillance camera footage showing the crime scene on the night of Dec. 14, 2011.
It shows the man landing an ax several times on the head of a five-month old dog named General. The caption on the footage read that Kim, who was drunk, found the dog irritating as it barked loudly while he was on his way home and passing the house of the pet’s owner.
Kim was stripped of his monkhood in 2009 for involvement in a physically violent case but was staying at a Buddhist temple in the southern port city of Busan at the time.
The dog was outside the house when Kim committed the crime and the owner, a 72-year-old man surnamed Song, called for help to find the suspect. His neighbors said Song lived by himself and suffered trauma and depression after losing General.
The police investigation, however, did not make much progress as the officers regarded the case as a “mere damage of private property,” according to animal lovers.
Police arrested Kim in May amid growing public anger and the prosecution indicted him.
The court said it was “inevitable” for Kim to receive a prison term.
“It’s evident that Kim’s crime caused emotional pain to Song, to whom his pet was everything, and we took that into consideration in our ruling,” the court said.
