"If you can't sell it in 3 years, you'll go to a protection center?"a dog on the verge of euthanasia

[Anchor]
On the 7th of last month, the Ending Dog Eating Act came into effect in earnest.

As a result, from February 2027, when the grace period ends, raising or selling dogs for edible purposes will be prohibited.

The government plans to dispose of all food dogs before then send the remaining dogs to animal protection centers, but some point out that they could be euthanized in large numbers.

I'm reporter Hwang Bo Hye-kyung.

[Reporter]
It is a basic plan to end dog food announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs last month.

The main goal is to provide up to 600,000 won per dog to dog farmers, aiming to leave no edible dogs by 2027.

[Park Beom-soo / Vice Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (last month's 26th): We have provisionally set aside about 100 billion won based on next year's budget so that 5,898 dog food industries can relocate or close their businesses. We are planning to support it with that.]

Currently, the total number of reported edible dogs is 466,000, and if they remain on the farm after three years, they will be sent for adoption or managed by an animal protection center.

However, as of the end of last year, there were only 71 animal protection centers directly operated by local governments nationwide,

In total, there are 228 private consignment facilities, which currently have a capacity of only 5,000.

Even if we try to build more, there are not many local governments that are concerned about securing sites and opposing residents.

For this reason, the budget for building an animal protection center that reflects the demand for local governments that can be built right away is on the decline.

Even that, in the last three years, the actual budget execution rate has averaged less than 30%.

In addition, even if food dogs are sent to animal protection centers, it is obvious that they are on the verge of euthanasia.

[Lee Hyung-joo / CEO of Animal Welfare Research Institute Aware: Animal protection centers are still struggling. So many animals are pouring in, but very few are being adopted.... In fact, more than 50% of them are either dead or euthanasia.]

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs explained that the budget given by the animal protection center was due to the absence of the local government's budget, which has already been built.

It then said it plans to induce dog farmers to close their businesses early by giving them more subsidies depending on the timing of their closure to minimize the remaining edible dogs.

In fact, it means that the farm should deal with it as much as possible within three years, and it is pointed out that more in-depth considerations should be made to minimize animal sacrifices.

I'm YTN Hwang Bo Hye-kyung.


Video Edit: Jung Kook-yoon

Design: Jeon Whee-lin