Dogs who were rescued from abuse await adoption at a center Seoul. Korea Times file



Constitutional Court may grant greater legal protection for animals



By Lee Suh-yoon



The Constitutional Court is currently reviewing a civil code article that designates animals as property. It is expected to reach a decision later this month.



The code classifies animals as objects without any basic rights or interests granted to human beings.



Care, an animal rights group, said this classification has led to unjust rulings in cases involving animal abuse. The group filed the case with the court last June.



Since pets are considered property, their owners or people who commit violence against them only face fines of up to what the animals are worth on the market.



"Due to the legal perception of animals as objects, past court verdicts of animal abuse only led people to face light punishment," Park So-youn, head of Care, told The Korea Times.



"Instead of reviewing animal abuse cases as those between a perpetrator and victim, these are only seen as something between a human and an object."



One such case happened in 2015, where a man killed his neighbor's ten-year-old dog with a metal pipe. He was indicted for "destroying his neighbor's property" and fined 2 million won ($1,800).



Care argued this legal definition of animals violates the Korean Constitution by encroaching on the people's basic right to pursue happiness, particularly pet owners.



"Pet owners have the right not to tolerate injury or death of their animals by another person," the group said. "People in general have the right not to feel revulsion from animal cruelty."



As of last year, the number of pets in the country reached about 10 million _ one-fifth of the human population _ amid the rise in single-person households.



"The number of people embracing animals as part of their families is increasing. This is leading to an important question whether we should still define animals as mere objects," Park said.



"We need to follow countries such as Germany and Switzerland to articulate animal rights in the Constitution and recognize animals _ not as objects _ but as third parties."



There have been increasing efforts to legally recognize animal's rights.



In March last year, Justice Party Chairwoman Lee Jeong-mi proposed an amendment to the code, saying the current legal system imposes relatively weak punishment and compensation when considering the "level of cruelty" seen in some animal abuse cases.



