동물보호법상 동물학대 규정의 문제점과 개선방안

Abstract

In the past, animals were a kind of property, and were treated as things that their owners could use or dispose of arbitrarily. In the event that other person abused a companion animal, the person could only be punished for the destruction of property, and in the event that an animal was abused by its owner, there were no legal grounds for punishing the owner. This situation, however, greatly changed after the Animal Protection Act was legislated in 1991. It may be said that the legislation of the Act is a meaningful legislative attempt in that it prepared a foundation for newly perceiving and establishing relationship between human being and animals. Although legal grounds for punishing animal abuse were prepared according as the Animal Protection Act was enforced, animal abuse keeps increasing. The same Act has been repeatedly amended for proper punishment and regulation due to the occurrence of new types of animal abuse not imagined at the time of the legislation of the Act. In particular, the 2022 revised Animal Protection Act that will be enforced next year specifies animal abuse acts, and at the same time clarifies legal grounds for punishable acts by the upward stipulation of detailed prohibited offenses. In addition, it prepared legal grounds for imposing an order to attend a lecture on a criminal in case of fulfilling fixed conditions, considering the characteristics of animal abuse that is likely to occur continuously and repeatedly. This is evaluated as considerably positive in terms of animal protection. However, all problems that were pointed out have not been solved, and the same Act still has a long way to go. In this context, this paper intends to look into problems of provisions on animal abuse in the Animal Protection Act and propose methods for their improvement, thereby contributing to the protection of animal life and the promotion of animal welfare. For this, this paper reviewed the history of animal abuse regulation, and then examined the problems of provisions on animal abuse and methods for their improvement. Specifically, first, while the current Act subjects the act of killing animals and acts leading to the death of animals to the same punishment, they should be subjected to different punishments according to the existence of intention. Second, the provision of differential treatment according to the objects of abandonment should be deleted. Third, the corpus delict of animal abuse should be simplified to killing and injury so that the provision of animal abuse in the Animal Protection Act may be applied to diverse types of animal abuse.