By Lee Kyung-min
Police booked a man, surnamed Yun, 27, for allegedly capturing stray cats and selling them to a health food store in return for 15,000 won per cat, it said Thursday.
It also booked the store owner, Kim, 52, for buying and butchering the cats and selling the meat to customers suffering from arthritis. Many believe here that cat meat is effective in treating arthritis and it is commonly ingested in a soup.
According to the Songpa Police Station in Seoul, Yun caught five stray cats using a cage with sausages inside in August in Gangdong and Gangnam districts.
Yun allegedly connected with prospective buyers online and contacted the store in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, where he sold them to Kim at 15,000 won each.
Kim butchered them and sold the meat at 25,000 won per cat.
Yun was apprehended after a woman witnessed him capturing a cat and reported it to police earlier this month.
When citizens saw him capturing cats, Yun told them that he was a district worker working on a trap-neuter-return program, according to police.
Police said that Yun confessed to the crime and said that he needed money to pay for medicine for his ill grandmother.
Kim initially told police that he bought the cats as there were rats in the store, but later admitted that he bought them for the meat. Police are investigating whether Yun and Kim had traded more cats previously.