Gyeonggi Province has established a new team to respond to and prevent animal-related crimes, and requested active reporting on illegal activities such as animal abuse.

The Animal Cruelty Prevention Team, which was newly established through organizational restructuring at the end of December 2022, consists of a total of 4 people: 1 fifth grade official as a team leader as well as 2 sixth grade officials and 1 seventh grade official.

Gyeonggi Province uncovered a total of 173 animal-related crimes from 2019 to 2022 after the Animal Protection Act was included in the scope of investigations by the Special Judicial Police in November 2018. By year, there were 67 cases in 2019, 66 cases in 2020, 29 cases in 2021, and 11 cases in 2022.

The newly established Animal Cruelty Prevention Team has four main targets: the cruel or intentional killing of animals; the infliction of physical pain or injury without cause; unauthorized animal breeding; and unregistered animal businesses (sales, consignment management, etc.).

At the end of 2020, according to Statistics Korea, there were 860,000 households with pets in Gyeonggi Province, accounting for 27.8% of Gyeonggi’s 3.13 million households.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police receive reports of illegal activities from provincial residents through their official website (www.gg.go.kr/gg_special_cop) and via the Gyeonggi-do Call Center (031-120).

Hong Eun-gi, head of Gyeonggi Province’s Civil Welfare Special Judicial Police, said, “With the establishment of the dedicated Animal Abuse Prevention Team, we will strictly monitor various illegal acts related to animals so as to create a Gyeonggi Province in which everyone is happy and prosperous while also actively working to achieve a consensus on respect for life among provincial residents.”