Stop animal abusers

People worse than brutes should be treated so

A Seoul court Friday meted out a suspended four-month prison term to a woman who abused and killed her neighbor’ cat. The judicial leniency defies our understanding, especially considering the poor animal’s loss of life and the heartrending pain its owner must have undergone.

Even more astonishing is the fact that the court applied the Law on Damaging and Destroying Property to give what court officials say was a ``heavy penalty.” Under the current Animal Protection Law, animal abusers are punishable by a maximum fine of 5 million won without physical detention.

Would foreigners believe it if Korea, which boasts an advanced country status as it hosts a G20 summit, regards pets as little more than belongings to humans instead of animals with precious lives?

The cat-killer must think it fortunate that she was tried before a new law goes into effect, which calls for punishing animal abusers with a jail term of up to one year and a maximum fine of 10 million won. And she must be thankful that she was not born in a ``real” advanced country, where the courts can put people who commit animal cruelty behind bars for up to 10 years.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was right to enhance penalties on animal abusers. But it should go further, by including in that category those people who abandon their pets at a whim without plausible reasons or those who just ``hoard” dogs and cats without properly breeding them. It was as early as in 1983 that some European countries decided to use the term ``companion animal” instead of pet, which has the nuance of a toy or other possession.

Examples of animal cruelty are increasing in Korea. These disgusting acts against animals, especially those committed by the younger generation, are especially noteworthy, as they can lead to crimes against humans.

A research has found that even dogs sometimes show the ability to discern what is morally right or wrong and refrain from acts that can alienate themselves from their group. Another study says some dogs that served in the Iraq detecting explosives showed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon returning home by avoiding other dogs and people and remaining distressed.

Certainly, there are humans worse than brutes. How about giving them opportunities to wrestle with dogs or cats, by throwing them in with pit bulls or pumas in a closed space?