On May 11, a man in his 60s was sentenced to 3 years in prison for starving more than 1,000 dogs and cats to death, according to Yonhap.

The sentence, handed down by the Suwon district court branch in Yeoju, is the highest penalty set by the Korean Animal Protection Act for animal cruelty.

The 66-year-old man takes in animals abandoned by pet farms because they are no longer fertile or have little commercial value in exchange for 10,000 won ( 7.53 USD ) per animal for their care. This behavior has taken place since February 2020.

A total of 1,256 dead dogs and cats were found in the man’s home in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province. The incident was exposed when a resident in the neighborhood searched for his lost dog. When he discovered the house full of dog corpses on March 4, this person immediately called the police.

KBS and other television stations showed blurred footage of dogs lying dead in cages, sacks and rubber crates on the ground in the yard. The corpses were rotten and stacked on top of each other, according to staff from the animal rights group Care at the scene.

Only four surviving dogs were rescued from the house and are being treated at a clinic. All were malnourished or had skin diseases, of which two were in critical condition, according to Korea Herald.

In Korea, animal abusers are often not punished even if convicted. According to data obtained from the office of an official of the opposition Democratic Party, only 2.9% of the 4,221 people who received animal cruelty charges from 2017 to March 2022 were prosecuted and brought to trial. .

About 47% faced no criminal charges, while 32% received minor fines. Of the 346 people subject to various penalties, nearly 60% were fined, only 5.5%, equivalent to 19 people, were in prison. According to current law, a person who abuses an animal to death can be fined up to 3 years in prison or 30 million won.