Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Conducts Intensive Inspection of 'Unlicensed and Unregistered' Pet Shops

2023 Pet Business Operators Inspection Plan

The government will conduct focused inspections on unauthorized and unregistered pet businesses, which have been difficult to regulate until now.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 7th that it has established and will implement the "2023 Pet Business Operator Inspection Plan" to strengthen the management of pet businesses, following ongoing issues such as indiscriminate production and sales and animal abuse at some pet businesses.

As the number of pet-owning households has increased, related businesses such as animal production and sales that introduce and distribute pets have grown to about 20,000 locations as of 2021. Business operators are required to obtain permits and registrations under the Animal Protection Act and comply with facility and personnel standards and other obligations.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, "In the case of unauthorized and unregistered businesses, penalties such as fines of 5 million KRW are relatively mild, and there are no regulations for forced closure of business sites, which limits the eradication of illegal and illicit business activities. Inspections and crackdowns have mainly focused on facility and personnel standards for permitted and registered businesses, making it difficult to crack down on abusive acts occurring at business sites and so-called new types of pet shops (pet stores) and other illicit business operations."

Accordingly, the Ministry plans to reorganize the inspection system for pet business operators and strengthen the planning inspection function, including field experts such as animal protection organizations, to effectively crack down on unauthorized, unregistered, and illicit business activities. In particular, they will focus on inspecting compliance with the strengthened facility and personnel standards and operator obligations under the revised Animal Protection Act, which will take effect on April 27.

The inspections will consist of joint inspections, planned inspections, and basic inspections. First, through joint inspections, a sample will be selected considering regions, complaints, and reports from about 6,700 animal welfare-sensitive businesses (as of 2021) that directly handle animals, such as production, sales, and exhibition businesses, as well as all permitted and registered business sites. Based on this, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, and local governments will conduct regular joint inspections once each in the first and second halves of the year to focus on illegal business operations.

Planned inspections will focus on responding to unauthorized, unregistered, and illicit business activities that were difficult to crack down on with the existing inspections centered on permitted and registered businesses. To this end, a new cooperation system will be established among the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (special investigators), local governments, and field experts (animal protection organizations), and they will conduct frequent inspections and crackdowns on abusive acts and new types of pet shops and illicit business operations within business sites. Additionally, a separate survey on illicit business activities will be conducted and actively utilized in planned inspections to simultaneously crack down on problematic business sites.

Through basic inspections, local governments will inspect all business operators at least once a year for compliance with facility and personnel standards and operator obligations, focusing on newly established and strengthened compliance requirements. They will also promote and encourage mandatory education completion (at least 3 hours annually).

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will take actions such as filing complaints, imposing fines, and closing business sites if illegal activities such as animal abuse are found during inspections. For deficiencies, corrective orders will be issued to ensure prompt improvements.

Song Nam-geun, Director of Animal Welfare and Environment Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "We hope that inspections of pet business operators will eradicate illegal and illicit business activities and establish a sound foundation for pet business activities. Based on this inspection and the survey of illicit business activities, we plan to identify and review additional institutional improvement tasks and prepare measures to strengthen pet business management within the first half of the year."

A puppy inside a glass partition at a pet shop in Seoul is struggling with the heat. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.