By Kim Se-jeong
Police are investigating a pet school employee for abusing animals in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.
According to the local police agency, the 29-year-old male employee is accused of throwing and beating a dog, a violation of the Animal Protection Law.
The suspect’s brutality is featured on a YouTube video where he grabs a dog by its collar, drags it, hits it against the wall and kicks it. As the dog runs away, the man pulls it back and beats it again, this time with a white object. While all this is happening, other dogs surrounding them are running around nervously.
When the video footage was released on social media Thursday, it instantly went viral, drawing strong reactions. On Facebook, the video footage received more than 3,500 likes and 350 comments.
“That man has a problem,” one wrote. “We need a law to ban people like him from looking after dogs.”
Another Facebook user wrote about her own experience: “My dog was sent to a dog school and died after one day. The owner didn’t explain to me why. I think I now know what might have happened to my dog.”
The video footage prompted Care, a Seoul-based animal rights group, to complain to the police. Care’s online board was bombarded with related complaints. It also began its own investigation.
The dog school owner came forward online to excuse himself, but that drew a stronger backlash.
Although tragic, the incident reflects the changing perception of animal rights in Korea, which was long notorious for animal abuse. Korea was _ and still is _ mentioned as a dog-eating country by outsiders.
However, inside the country, this is slowly changing.
As individualism and capitalism spread, more people adopt dogs and cats as companion animals. Some estimates say one out of five citizens now have a companion animal.
More groups advocate for animal rights and police have gotten tougher on animal abusers.