LCA and S. Korean sister organization, Animal Liberation Wave, have filed a lawsuit against a Kyungpook National University (KNU) professor after a whistleblower exposed live experiments on dogs obtained from a dog meat market.

The lawsuit was filed against the professor for falsifying official documents, obstructing the performance of official duties of KNU's Animal Testing Ethics Committee, failing to consider alternative methods to reproductive tests, and for animal abuse.

A student taking an Obstetric Practice course first exposed breeding tests at KNU's Veterinary Science Department in August 2019. The class, designed to teach students about reproductive physiology, required students to perform repeated vaginal cell tests on five female dogs and breed them during mating period. 

The university—which is located in Daegu, S. Korea—cancelled the course in September following public outcry. Although the university stated the dogs were sourced from 'Seoul Animal Center,' LCA and ALW later discovered (with the assistance of MP Kim Hae-young) that 'Seoul Animal Center' was used as a cover-up and the dogs were actually sourced from Chilsung Dog Market.

A dog named Health—who was continuously used for testing even though she suffered from serious health concerns like ovarian cancer—died in the University's housing facility where the dogs were kept. S. Korea's current Animal Protection Act bans 'killing an animal with animals of the same kind present at the scene,' so LCA and ALW intend to follow-up this death with legal actions.

ALW's founder and co-president Jiyen Lee said: "As this KNU case suggests, the S. Korean dog meat trade is not only providing dogs for their meat, but also providing dogs—our companion animals—for testing in laboratories. The only way to protect our four-legged companion animals is for the government to step up and phase out the country's brutal dog meat trade!"

Help end the dog meat trade!

SIGN THE PETITION urging the S. Korean government to ban the brutal slaughter of dogs and cats for meat! Click here to sign the petition.

Click here to learn more about LCA's campaign to end S. Korea's dog meat trade.

Photo: LCA/ALW