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I once told you about the brutal killing of stray cats and other animals, filming the process and posting it on a group chat room. Today (11th), the perpetrator was sentenced to probation, but there are criticisms that the punishment is weak, and there are also criticisms of the inconsistency of these animal cruelty-related judgments.



Reporter Park Jae-hyun on the sidewalk.



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I am now at the Seosan Branch of the Daejeon District Court.



From here, a sentence will be pronounced on the animal cruelty suspect soon.



A domestic animal protection group said they hoped for a monumental trial result, but let's hear the sentence in person.



Mr. Lee, who brutally killed animals and shared videos and photos of the process with 80 people in a group chat room.



Prosecutors have requested a maximum sentence of three years in prison for the first time since the animal protection law sentence was increased in February.



They killed animals in a cruel way and shared it.



However, the court sentenced him to four months in prison and two years of probation.



Although he acknowledged the cruelty of the crime and found him guilty of all crimes, it was because Mr. Lee was a first-time offender and was engaged in animal protection activities after the crime.



[Mr. Lee/Animal Abuse Perpetrator: I admit that there was a problem, of course, but (in the future) I will not.]



Animal protection groups who expected severe punishment protested.



[Choi Min-kyung / Animal rights activist Kara activist: Because he is a first-time offender, because he is young, and because he wants his family to take good care of him, without making that person pay the price for the lives that have died…

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Criticisms have also emerged that each court imposes arbitrary standards on animal cruelty crimes.



We analyzed 21 major cases of animal cruelty since 2016.



A case in which a cat was brutally abandoned to death was sentenced to six months in prison, and the perpetrator was arrested in court.



A veterinarian who starved to death one experimental animal and abused 20 animals was sentenced to probation.



However, there are many instances in which similar offenses are punishable by fines.



A fine of between 500,000 and 2.5 million won was imposed on the perpetrators of the case in which four dogs were starved to death without giving them water and food, or in the case of striking a stray cat to death with a stick and hanging two dogs by hanging for noise.



Animal cruelty crimes are becoming more and more brutal, and court judgments are criticized for being jagged with no sentencing standards.



[Jeong Ki-soo / Secretary of Agriculture, Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Blue House (last February): It is pointed out that most of the (animal abuse) is only a fine.

I will ask the Supreme Court Sentencing Committee to come up with sentencing standards related to animal cruelty.]



However, this year, the Supreme Court Sentencing Committee decided not to even discuss the sentencing standards for animals.



(Video coverage: Kim Yong-woo, video editing: Park Ki-duk, screen provided: Animal Freedom Coalition)