Stray dog menace poses growing threat to people

A woman was mauled to death by a stray dog in a suburb near Seoul on Saturday afternoon. The 59-year-old died of excessive bleeding a few hours after the dog bit her neck. 

The dog's attack was filmed by a closed circuit camera set up in the neighborhood, and police later captured the dog, which looked like a hybrid of Pungsan Dog and Samoyed.

This is not an isolated incident at a time when many pedigreed dogs end up on city streets and turn into strays, baring fangs and attacking people and livestock alike.

Last week, packs of strays raided a poultry farm in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, culling around 800 chickens. It was the second attack at the farm after strays struck a week earlier and killed about 250 chickens.

Amid increasing attacks by wild dogs, the city said it would work with a dog vigilante squad to capture them, a mission that has proved elusive since dogs are highly cautious and wary.

On the southern resort island of Jeju, a woman and her dog were seriously injured after being viciously attacked by a stray dog early this month.

The dog gnawed off the pet dog's neck and ear and then attacked the owner, who tried to intervene. It pulled her down by sinking its teeth into the 52-year-old woman's left ankle for more than five minutes. It ran away only when a neighbor dashed at it and shooed it away, wielding a rod and throwing rocks at it.

When the dog was caught, it was wearing a dog collar, indicating it once lived with its master.

Approximately 7,000 stray dogs are annually caught and sent to animal shelters on the island. The Jeju provincial government has recently commissioned a study on the reality of stray dogs to better deal with the increasing threat to islanders and tourists. It has also been offering spaying and neutering of pet dogs raised outdoors for free.

According to recent data from the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 95,261 dogs were rescued and transferred to animal shelters last year.

Of the total, 27.7 percent were eventually adopted, 26.5 percent were euthanized in shelters, 16.6 percent died natural deaths and 15.1 percent was sent to their original masters.

While relevant official data is not available, a large number of pet dogs are believed to become feral dogs, roaming around the streets and becoming a nuisance at best and a serious health threat at worst.

The provincial assembly of South Jeolla Province urged the government to revise the Animal Protection Act and the Wildlife Protection and Management Act to include stray dogs as "harmful wild animals," like feral pigs, to allow them to be hunted using rifles and lay the groundwork for compensating farmers who suffer losses from dog attacks.

According to the assembly, more than 2,000 farm animals were killed by such dogs over the past three years in the province and the damage has been on the rise. A failure to control the stray population could also lead to an increasing risk of infectious diseases spread by the dogs, it said.

More importantly, animal welfare advocates said pet owners should be more responsible for their pets and not surrender their old or sick animals just because it costs money to treat them or they lose interest.

Relevant laws have improved -- albeit slowly -- in line with the growing number of pets, estimated to be around 15 million nationwide. Of the total, 2.3 million have been registered with the government since the system to monitor pet ownership was introduced in 2014.

In February, a law went into effect to punish pet surrenders with a fine of up to 3 million won ($2,660). Individuals who tortured and killed an animal can be punished with a fine of up to 30 million won.

Choi Bong-soon, head of the Animal Protection team at the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, said a rise in registration reflected "the growing awareness" among pet owners about protection for animals and responsible ownership.

"We will continue working toward forming a social consensus on animal welfare and nurturing a mature pet culture," he said. (Yonhap)