Court gives man who killed 11 adopted dogs and cats suspended sentence

Ahn, convicted of killing 11 dogs and cats he adopted, is carrying a dog. Courtesy of KARA

A 20-year-old man who went to trial for killing 11 adopted animals has been given a suspended prison sentence by a court, which animal rights groups have condemned as the "worst sentence.”

Some say that sentencing standards should be specified by reflecting the characteristics of crimes against animals.

Animal Rights Action KARA said on June 24 that the Uijeongbu District Court sentenced Mr. Ahn, a man in his 20s who brought in 11 puppies and cats for adoption and temporary protection and killed them, to one year and six months in prison, three years of probation, and 480 hours of community service. Prosecutors had earlier charged Ahn with violating the Animal Protection Act in April and sought the statutory maximum penalty of three years in prison during the trial. Ahn was accused of killing 11 adopted animals between October 2023 and February this year in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

KARA said the court took into account that Ahn was reflecting on the crime and was the first offender.

Ahn is said to have submitted 15 letters of apology and a pledge for the eradication of recidivism to the court from April 19 to the day before the sentence.

KARA has submitted a request for appeal to the prosecution against the outcome of the first trial.

"It appears that Ahn adopted 11 animals through adopter postings by individual rescuers on second-hand applications, pet adoption platforms, etc. rather than through an organization to avoid having his adoption history recorded," said Yoon Sung-mo, an activist at KARA. "He also chose animals that did not avoid his hand during the adoption process." He walks away without even a slap on the wrist despite his well-planned and repeated offense.

Ahn's crimes were uncovered when a rescuer was persistent in checking on the health of a puppy he had adopted. Ahn approached rescuers, reassured them, saying, "The animal I raised earlier died of illness and I want to adopt a new animal," and then killed the adopted animal and claimed to have "lost" it. A rescuer, who was suspicious of this, visited Ahn's house and questioned him persistently and he finally confessed his crime. The rescuer posted the fact on online communities, and his further crimes were confirmed by testimonies of people who said they "lost contact with him after sending pets to him for adoption."

As soft punishment has been repeated for crimes against animals, there are voices saying that "the sentencing standards should be prepared in consideration of the characteristics of animal crimes." “Animal crimes are more rarely caught at the time of the first offense than other crimes, , but the fact that there is no similar criminal record at the time of arrest works in the offender’s favor," said Seo Guk-hwa, the head of PNR, an animal rights research and lawyer organization. "In Ahn's case, he was considered a first-time offender because he had not been punished for similar crimes even though he had already killed 11 animals and the crimes had been continued for a long time.”

Courts are looking for ways to improve the system for trials of violations of the Animal Protection Act. The Sentencing Committee of the Supreme Court held its 132nd plenary session on June 17 and began discussing ways to set new sentencing standards for crimes which violate the Animal Protection Act.

There are also calls for caution against animal adoptions between individuals through platforms. Activist Yoon said, "If an adoption is made between individuals, it is virtually impossible to control it," adding, "If you send an animal to someone for adoption, you should visit the adoptee's house to check and prepare a written pledge and let the adoptee to fill it out after informing that you can proceed with a civil lawsuit if there is a problem."

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.