Animal welfare comprehensive plan
Government Policy
Expired
January 13, 2020
Summary
South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs administered a national five-year Animal Welfare Comprehensive Plan covering 2020-2024, the country’s second such plan, setting policy direction for companion animals, farm animals, and animals used in testing.
Measures described in 2019-2020 policy announcements included expanding the legal definition of animal cruelty and associated penalties, mandatory insurance for owners of specified dog breeds from 2021, mandatory education for prospective pet owners from 2022, farm animal welfare criteria at breeding, transport, and slaughter stages, and strengthened oversight of animal testing ethics committees.
The plan’s stated period concluded in 2024; its individual measures continued through incorporated legislation, regulation, and administrative practice.
Background Context
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced its intention to draft the 2020-2024 plan on 3 July 2019, as a successor to an earlier five-year animal welfare blueprint running through 2019.
A partial amendment to the Animal Protection Act was promulgated on 11 February 2020 and took effect 12 February 2021, forming part of the legal environment into which the plan was introduced.
World Animal Protection’s 2020 Animal Protection Index rated South Korea D overall prior to this plan period, reflecting limited regulatory coverage and enforcement relative to other jurisdictions at the time.
Press materials from 2019 describe rising public concern about pet abandonment and animal cruelty alongside a growing companion animal industry as context for the plan’s development.
System Impact
Direction
Neutral / Administrative
Type
Modifies Conditions
Significance
Moderate
During the plan period, the Animal Protection Act’s statutory definition of cruelty and associated maximum penalties were expanded, including a three-year imprisonment or 30 million KRW fine for maltreatment leading to death.
Mandatory insurance for owners of specified dog breeds began in 2021, and mandatory education for prospective pet owners was introduced from 2022. The plan directed development of farm animal welfare criteria at breeding, transport, and slaughter stages and an upgraded farm animal welfare certification scheme, alongside strengthened companion animal registration and traceability requirements and enhanced criteria and personnel standards at local government animal protection centers. It directed strengthened deliberation and supervision responsibilities for Animal Testing Ethics Committees and increased obligations for animal testing agencies.
Available sources do not provide an integrated quantitative count of animals or facilities affected by these measures in aggregate.
Anticipated Effects
None documented at time of record creation. The plan’s stated period (2020-2024) has concluded, and its individual measures are described in available sources as continuing through incorporated legislation, regulation, and administrative practice rather than as pending future effects.
Significance Rationale
Assigned Neutral / Administrative for impact direction because available sources describe the plan as restructuring regulatory conditions, obligations, and governance across companion animal, farm animal, and laboratory animal sectors without documenting a quantified contraction or expansion in the number of animals used in these systems attributable specifically to the plan.
Assigned Modifies Conditions as the primary mechanism because the plan’s core measures, including education and registration requirements, farm welfare criteria, and ethics committee oversight, adjust conditions and governance within continuing systems rather than eliminating a system or measurably changing its scale.
Assigned Moderate significance because the plan operates nationally across multiple sectors with concrete policy tasks and associated statutory amendments, but available sources document changes in conditions, legal definitions, and administrative structures rather than a demonstrated large-scale contraction or expansion in total animal exploitation volumes attributable to the plan.
Within The System
Key Actors
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs drafted, adopted, and coordinated implementation of the plan. The Animal Welfare Committee, a national advisory body under the Animal Protection Act, is identified as an actor whose deliberation function the plan sought to strengthen. Provincial and municipal governments implemented registration enforcement, animal protection center operations, and local guidance under the plan’s governance components; Gyeonggi Province is documented as having used the national framework to design provincial companion animal policy.
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