Minister Jeong Hwang-geun: "Legal System Must Shift from Animal Protection to Welfare"

First Meeting with Animal Protection Organizations

Jeong Hwang-geun, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, stated on the 30th, "We need to shift our perspective from animal protection to animal welfare."

Minister Jeong made these remarks during a meeting with animal protection organizations held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the same day. He explained, "The United States already enacted the Animal Welfare Act in the 1960s, so they are ahead of us," adding, "We are preparing to revise the current Animal Protection Act into an Animal Welfare Act."

This meeting was held to mark 100 days since the launch of the Animal Welfare Policy Office, to explain efforts to strengthen animal welfare and future plans, and to gather opinions from animal protection organizations. Attendees included Jo Hee-kyung, representative of Animal Freedom Union; Jeon Jin-kyung, representative of Animal Rights Action Kara; Kim Se-hyun, vice representative of Beagle Rescue Network; Eom Ji-young, representative of ADOGS; Lee Hyung-joo, representative of the Animal Welfare Research Institute Aware; and Park Sun-mi, representative of the Korea Cat Protection Association, among other animal protection organization officials.

At the meeting, Minister Jeong said, "To actively respond to the growing interest in animal welfare, we established a dedicated organization last December and prepared the 'Animal Welfare Enhancement Plan' to realize a society where both people and animals are happy," adding, "We will actively promote measures such as strengthening the management of pet production and sales to improve issues like puppy mills, eradicating animal abuse, improving the location and facilities of private animal protection centers, and protecting and managing stray cats."

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced measures to strengthen animal welfare. The enhancement plan includes ▲ expanding preventive policies to minimize abuse, abandonment, and dog bite accidents ▲ realizing post-measures such as rescue, protection, and adoption of abused and abandoned animals ▲ restructuring the system from the Animal Protection Act to the Animal Welfare Act.

Since this month, the Ministry has strengthened compliance inspections and crackdowns on illegal and illicit operations by pet business operators. Next month, the care system will be reinforced by imposing obligations on pet adopters, and a reporting system for private animal protection facilities will be introduced. In May, institutional measures such as the 'Pet Business Management Enhancement Plan' and 'Private Protection Facility Improvement Plan' will also be established.

Song Nam-geun, Animal Welfare Policy Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "Although we have amended the Animal Protection Act 10 times to quickly introduce and expand various systems, on-site policies and awareness are still insufficient," adding, "Further improvements such as business restrictions are necessary."

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