Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Announces 2024 Animal Welfare Awareness Survey Results
45.5% Positive Response to Compliance Items for Pet Owners Going Out,
National Animal Protection Information System website capture., ‘[Daily An = Reporter Kim So-hee] It was found that awareness of the animal registration system remains in the 60% range. Although the animal registration system has been mandatory since 2014, 4 out of 10 people are unaware of the system.’,
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, ‘According to the ‘2024 National Consciousness Survey on Animal Welfare’ released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on the 22nd, awareness of the animal registration system is 67.7%. This is an increase of 4.1 percentage points from the previous year.’,
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, ‘Awareness of the animal registration system has been rising since 2020. It recorded 50.6% in 2020, 55.2% in 2021, 56.1% in 2022, and 63.6% in 2023.’,
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, ‘Although awareness increases slightly each year, considering that the mandatory implementation of the animal registration system has been over 10 years, the rate is slow.’,
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, ‘Only 45.6% responded positively to whether pet owners comply with items such as wearing leashes, harnesses, and identification tags when going out, an increase from 44.3% in the previous year. It was found that there is a significant gap between pet owners and non-pet owners.’,
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, ‘Among pet owners, 86.8% gave positive responses to compliance items, whereas only 35.6% of non-pet owners did. This means that while pet owners think they comply with more than 80% of the items, non-pet owners perceive that only 30% of pet owners comply when going out with their pets.’,
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, ‘Awareness of major laws and systems related to animal welfare is continuously increasing.’,
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, ‘Awareness of the Animal Protection Act was 57.1% in 2020 and has continuously increased to 75.4% in 2024.’,
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, ‘Awareness and sensitivity to animal abuse are also at high levels.’,
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, ‘Most respondents recognized not only ‘physical abuse (91.0%)’, but also raising animals in ‘poor environments’ such as dark (89.1%) or cramped (85.4%) spaces, or wire cages (76.5%), as animal abuse.’,
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, ‘The majority of respondents agreed (87.8%) with strong punishment and breeding bans for animal abusers.’,
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, ‘The most common route for pet adoption was from acquaintances for free (35.5%). The adoption rate from animal shelters increased by 3.3 percentage points from the previous year (8.9%→12.2%).’,
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, ‘Of the respondents willing to adopt pets, 80.9% expressed willingness to adopt lost or abandoned animals, but preferences for younger animals (38.9%), lack of information on adoption and procedures (27.8%), and concerns about diseases or behavior (25.9%) were cited as reasons for not considering adopting lost or abandoned animals.’,
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, ‘The average monthly cost of raising pets increased by about 16,000 won from the previous year to 142,000 won (including 52,000 won for medical expenses), with the cost for dogs (175,000 won) being higher than that for cats (130,000 won).’,
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, ‘Most pet owners responded that they visit an animal hospital at least once a year (93.0%).’,
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, ‘Lee Yeon-sook, head of the Animal Welfare Policy Division at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, said, “We plan to reflect the results of this animal welfare awareness survey in policy promotion plans, education expansion for pet owners, and the promotion of adoption, among other animal protection and welfare policies,” adding, “We will also continuously improve the reliability of the survey results to increase their utility as basic policy data.”