3 accused of displaying animal cruelty videos on chat room
Seongdong Police Station announced Monday that it had referred three people to the prosecution for allegedly distributing videos and photos in a members-only online chat room of them brutally abusing and killing animals.
The suspects were accused of violating the Animal Protection Law, while one was additionally accused of violating the Wildlife Protection and Management Act
They were among about 80 participants in the anonymously run chat room to have been called in for police questioning.
Others were not referred to the prosecutors’ office as officers did not find any evidence of their direct involvement in cruelty to animals. The case was made public in January by the Korea Animal Welfare Association (KAWA), a local animal rights group, which filed a police report and publicly disclosed some of the content and conversations shared in the chat room.
KAWA assumed that the chat room had been in operation for about six months, and labelled the participants as operators, animal abusers and viewers.
The abusers “hunted” stray cats, dogs and wild animals such as raccoons, water deer and birds using various tools including knives, air rifles, and bows and arrows. They displayed photos and videos with specific descriptions of them brutally torturing or killing the captured animals. Some members shared photos that appeared to be bodies and heads of dead animals.
Other members of the chat room who mostly watched the content left comments expressing satisfaction and encouraged the abusers to carry on with even more brutal acts.
After the chat room was revealed to the public, the operators deleted most of the content in an attempt to destroy evidence; while some members stated they would choose another messenger platform to create a similar chat room.
Their acts and lack of remorse immediately raised public fury.
A petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website calling for tough punishment of the chat room participants gathered over 270,000 signatures, exceeding the number needed for an official response from the presidential office, which is required to do this within 30 days if a petition receives more than 200,000 endorsements.