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Investigate it yourself – Icheon, Gimpo, Paju suggest in response to our petition

We had sent petitions to city of Icheon (and all the cities on KARA’s dog farm archive), through South Korea’s official government petition, e-People, asking them to inspect and enforce their laws to shut down the illegal dog farms in their city. In response, we received the below email from Icheon, asking us to provide photos of the exterior of the dog farms and the evidence of animal abuse, etc.

Gimpo and Paju also sent the similar responses asking us to investigate the dog farms and provide them with the photographs, etc.

We responded as below:

We reject the assertion here that public interest whistleblowing applies specifically to the issues raised in our petition. It is well documented that laws and regulations related to both; how food waste may or may not be used/repurposed (in agriculture) and what the minimum requirements are for animal welfare (whether in intensive agriculture or not). This issue is out of scope for public whistle blowing as the whistle has already been blown by ours and a number of NGOs and other concerned citizens. It is now up to the local government to investigate compliance with local laws and regulations.

The terms and conditions upon which the e-People petition service operates very clearly states that a person may file a petition with the Korean Administrative Agencies with regard to the requirement that such administrative agencies take action on other matters such as the lack of enforcement of existing laws.

We have raised our petition with a number of local government constituencies and the majority of these have provided a full written response to the issues raised in our petition (regardless of the fact that we disagree with the basis on which their responses were made). We ask why is Icheon differing from other constituencies on this issue, why is Icheon asking that citizens and not civil service officials working for the government be tasked with inspecting and obtaining such evidence?

We believe that Icheon has erred in its response to our petition and that it is rightly down to local government officials and the police that should be required to monitor compliance and enforce the law, local government is responsible for inspecting each facility and taking action against any violation of laws or civil codes.


Below is email from Icheon:

Ichoen City Hall: We need evidence on the acts of violation of the dog farms. (lthe exterior pictures of a dog farms or animal abuse etc…)

“임현규” [email protected]
Attachments
2:12 AM (9 hours ago)
to me /[email protected]

Dear. Giny Woo

Thanks for interesting in our civil administration.

We need you to prepare the evidence on the acts of violation of the dog farms, the evidence like the exterior pictures of a dog farms or animal abuse etc…

(You can not use the pictures which are capture image, satellite picture and google picture)

According to Korean Law of the Method of Public interest Whistelblowing

Article 8 (Method of Public Interest Whistleblowing)

(1) Any person who intends to file a public interest whistleblowing case shall submit a statement in writing (including electronic documents. Hereinafter referred to as the “written report”), with attachment of evidence on the acts of violation of the public interests to any person in the Article 6 Subparagraphs. The statement shall include the information described in each of the following Subparagraphs:

1. The name, resident registration number, address, contact numbers, etc. of the whistleblower;

2. The name of the person who violated public interest;

3. A factual description of the violation of the public interest;

4. The purport and reason of the public interest whistleblowing.

(2) Notwithstanding Paragraph 1, in the event that there are specific circumstances wherein a written report cannot be submitted, an oral statement may be presented in its stead. In this case, evidence, etc. shall be submitted as well.

Article 10 (Processing of Public Interest Whistleblowing Case)

(1) The examination agency, either upon direct receipt of a public interest whistleblowing case or receipt of a public interest whistleblowing case transferred from the Commission, shall conduct necessary examination about the details thereof.

(2) The examination agency may not launch or may discontinue the examination if the public interest whistleblowing case falls under any of the following Subparagraphs:

1. If the contents of the public interest whistleblowing case are clearly deemed to be false;

2. In the event that the personal information of the public interest whistleblower is not available

3. In the event that the public interest whistleblower fails to supplement his/her written report or supporting materials within a preset period after receiving at least two requests to do so;

4. If a public interest whistleblower reports again, without any justifiable reason, a case for which he/she had already been notified of the processing result thereof;

5. In the event that the contents of the public interest whistleblowing case were publicized through the mass-media, etc., and that there was no new evidence other than the facts that had already been disclosed;

6. In the event that an examination into the violation of the public interest had already begun or had already been completed in accordance with some other Act(s) and subordinate statute(s);

7. In the event that there is no reason for examination as prescribed by Presidential Decree.

So, We need evidence on the acts of violation of the dog farms. You can prepare the evidence like the exterior pictures of a dog farms or animal abuse etc…

You should submit those pictures about evidence on e-mail by 18:00, Saturday, Dec 14th, 2019 (Korean Time)

If we can’t get the evidence by the time limit, We will terminate your petition without result.

Have a good day.

————————————————————————————-

임현규 / 주무관
이천시청(농업기술센터 축산과)
주소: 경기도 이천시 부악로 38-52(중리동) E-mail : [email protected]
Tel. 031-644-2612 Fax. 031-638-6052

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Response from Gimpo, South Korea.

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