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[UPDATE: April 20, 2021] Ex-SNU dog breeder gets suspended sentence for fatal abuse of cloned dog

The Korea Times reported on April 19, 2021, “A former dog breeder who worked for Seoul National University (SNU) has been sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, for mistreating 20 dogs, including a retired cloned sniffer dog, which were used in experiments carried out by the university’s veterinary medicine college.

The Seoul Central District Court said Monday it found the 25-year-old guilty of violating the Animal Protection Act.

The breeder was working for a research team led by veterinary professor Yi Byeong-cheon from 2018 to 2019.

The alleged mistreatment of experimental dogs by the SNU research team was first made known to the public after the animal rights group Beagle Rescue Network posted a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website in April 2019.

The group filed a complaint with the prosecution against Prof. Yi for alleged violation of the Animal Protection Act, but the professor claimed that it was the breeder, not him, who had mistreated the dogs. The professor then reported the breeder to the police.

The prosecution’s investigation showed that the breeder had hit and thrown the dogs for no reason, and blasted them with high-pressure water hoses.

Among the abused animals was a retired cloned sniffer dog named May, who starved to death as a result of the breeder’s actions.

The sniffer dog had been retired after five years of service at Incheon International Airport.

The professor, who was carrying out tests to develop animals with specific characteristics through cloning technology, is currently undergoing a separate trial for using May for his research without gaining approval from the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.”

Source: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2021/04/113_307398.html

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[UPDATE: November 27, 2019] Veterinary professor Lee Byeong-Chun accused of animal abuse, case sent to prosecution

The Korea Herald reported, “An animal abuse case against a renowned veterinary professor based at Seoul National University, who allegedly conducted illegal experiments on a cloned dog, has been sent to the prosecution. The Seoul Gwanak Police Station said Tuesday that it had referred Lee Byeong-chun’s case to the prosecution, recommending that he be charged with violating the Animal Protection Act. The animal keeper at Lee’s lab and an owner of a dog farm, suspected of providing Lee with dogs for experiments, were also referred to the prosecution.” Click HERE to learn more.

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This is translation of post from Korea Animal Rights Advocates(KARA) on April 16, 2019.

You can also click HERE to read news article by The Korea Times to learn more.

Retired cloned dog, May, so starved that his ribs and bones are protruding, unable to stand upright properly, nose bleeding and with strangely enlarged genitalia.

Although retired working dogs are prohibited from being used for animal testing purposes, Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine professor Lee Byeong-Chun used retired quarantine detection (sniffer) dogs for animal testing.

Dongyi, another dog being used for research, is forced to constantly run on a treadmill to track changes in heart rate. When the research experiment is over, Dongyi will be put to use as a sniffer dog again without any rest. Dongyi has experienced rolled-back eyes and seizures, and a veterinarian has stated that this is likely due to high stress. Dongyi is only holding up with the help of drugs.

These gruesome images were reported on a KBS broadcast on April 15, 2019, which shocked the public.

These cruel acts were all committed by Professor Lee Byeong-Chun. Back in 2017, KARA had already raised public awareness against Lee Byeong-Chun for illegally using dog meat farm dogs for his unethical research, and had filed a lawsuit against the governmental organization Rural Development Administration for commissioning Lee Byeong-Chun to clone working dogs. The lawsuit against the Rural Development Administration is still in ongoing.

Lee Byeong-Chun took female dogs from dog meat farms in dismal conditions and collected their eggs, which he artificially fertilized and implanted into surrogate dogs to obtain his cloned dogs. The dogs that were taken by Lee Byeong-Chun were all returned to dog meat farms where they were brutally slaughtered.

Now it has been reported that these cloned dogs, that have spent many years in service for humans were subjected to cruel animal testing after their retirement by Lee Byeong-Chun. From dog meat farm dog egg collection to animal testing on retired working dogs – where is the end of the unethical behavior of Professor Lee Byeong-Chun?

The bigger issue is that despite several blatant acts of animal abuse, Lee Byeong-Chun is still permitted to continue his research. Even though he has violated the law and has committed cruel cloning experiments using dog meat farm dogs, Lee Byeong-Chun is currently the research director for the Center for Companion Animal Research, which the Rural Development Administration has committed 22 billion Korean won of taxpayers’ money to develop core technology for the vitalization of the companion animal industry. That is even after the cruel egg collection incident was revealed to the public.
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The Rural Development Administration employs the most people with master’s and doctorate degrees among all of Korea’s national agencies, has an enormous research budget and exercises great power and authority. In 2018, in response to KARA’s demand for the dismissal of professor Lee Byeong-Chun, the Rural Development Administration stated “There is no decisive reason for his dismissal and he was chosen competitively.”

Lee Byeong-Chun, who hides behind his researcher’s mask, must immediately be removed from his position, and the government agency who granted Lee Byeong-Chun with government funds and the authority to do research on companion animals needs to wake up and face the truth. The business of cloning dogs must be stopped!

KARA would like you to join us in saving abused animals in labs and stopping unethical animal testing by signing this petition.

Only your awareness and compassion can save these animals from this suffering.

✔ Unethical Lee Byeong-Chun must step down from all of his positions and stop his cruel dog cloning business!

✔ Seoul National University must take responsibility for Lee Byeong-Chun’s ongoing abuse of lab animals and immediately dismiss Lee Byeong-Chun!

✔ The government must disclose information on the dog cloning business and the Rural Development Administration must remove Lee Byeong-Chun as the head of the Center for Companion Animal Research!

Call for Action

• Click HERE to sign our petition.
  (Translation of Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA)’s petition).
• Click HERE to sign petition by Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA).
  The translations of this petition same as their blog post which we is translated here.

  (Note: You must click the top box “예” to the question in Korean translated as “Do you agree to provide personal information? (The information you provide is used by KARA only for urgent investigation of abuse cases and you will not be able to sign up if you do not agree) *”)

• This petition is now closed now. It reached required 200,000 signatures for government response. Thank you all of you who have signed!
  Click HERE to sign petition by Beagle Rescue Network (BRN) on Official Korean Government Petition Site.

  Need help with Official Korean Government Petition? Click HERE for instruction.

  Translation of Beagle Rescue Network’s petition:

  Please save retired detection dogs from animal testing at Seoul National University!

  On April 15, 2019, the KBS 9 o’clock news reported the truth about the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency’s Incheon Airport Center. We, the Beagle Rescue Network, received a tip about this in January, and after three months of investigation we provided all the data we obtained to KBS.

  Based on our own investigation and the KBS news report, we would like to petition the following:

  1. Immediately stop the illegal animal testing at Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine and rescue the retired quarantine detection (sniffer) dogs being used for animal testing purposes.

  – As KBS reported, May, Pev and Cheonwangi all worked as detection dogs at Incheon Airport’s quarantine center for five years since 2013. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency transferred these dogs to professor Lee Byeong-Chun of Seoul National University for animal testing purposes in March 2018. One of the three dogs transferred to the university died of natural causes, and two are still alive.

  Article 24 of the Animal Protection Act of Korea prohibits the use of service dogs for animal testing purposes. Apart from the illegality of the issue, how can you subject dogs that have spent many years of life in service to the country and for the safety of people to cruel animal testing for the rest of their lives? We should be finding good homes for them.

  This goes beyond problems with animal testing – If we neglect the seriousness of this issue, it will undermine the trust the public has in the country.

  Currently, the two surviving dogs at Seoul National University have been subject to animal testing for a long time and therefore their rescue is most urgent. We petition that testing on these two dogs be stopped immediately and that they be transferred to the Beagle Rescue Network’s shelter.

  2. We petition that Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency immediately stop and reconsider the joint research project on the cloning of superior detection dogs.

  – Please investigate the fairness of the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency’s evaluation process of the detection dog cloning done by Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine.
  According to the Beagle Rescue Network’s investigation, it has been confirmed that the evaluation methods and evaluation subjects are conducted by a select few senior executives, and there is a huge difference in opinion from the actual handlers of the dogs at the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency.
  From our knowledge, the Korean National Police Agency is of the opinion that cloned dogs are not superior, and thus they have stopped using cloned dogs as police dogs.

  3. Finally, we need to improve the laws and systems that can guarantee the respectful treatment of service dogs.

  – Korea is the only country among OECD countries where retired service dogs are used for animal testing. We petition that the government set up policies at the national level to promote the welfare of service dogs and ensure a happy and safe life after their retirement.

• Click HERE to file a petition with the South Korean government through e-People online.
  (You can use our change.org petition text or your own words.)
• 📧 Send emails to the SNU’s President and faculties and staffs at the SNU’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
  [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
• Send postal letter to the SNU’s President.
  Office of the President
  Seoul National University Building 60
  1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul
  Postal Code 08826
  South Korea

  Suggested message to SNU and Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency

  Dismiss veterinary professor Lee Byeong-Chun from Seoul National University! The government authorities need to take responsibility!

  Retired cloned dog, May, so starved that his ribs and bones are protruding, unable to stand upright properly, nose bleeding and with strangely enlarged genitalia.

  Although retired working dogs are prohibited from being used for animal testing purposes, Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine professor Lee Byeong-Chun used retired quarantine detection (sniffer) dogs for animal testing.

  Dongyi, another dog being used for research, is forced to constantly run on a treadmill to track changes in heart rate. When the research experiment is over, Dongyi will be put to use as a sniffer dog again without any rest. Dongyi has experienced rolled-back eyes and seizures, and a veterinarian has stated that this is likely due to high stress. Dongyi is only holding up with the help of drugs.

  These gruesome images were reported on a KBS broadcast on April 15, 2019, which shocked the public.

  These cruel acts were all committed by Professor Lee Byeong-Chun. Back in 2017, KARA had already raised public awareness against Lee Byeong-Chun for illegally using dog meat farm dogs for his unethical research, and had filed a lawsuit against the governmental organization Rural Development Administration for commissioning Lee Byeong-Chun to clone working dogs. The lawsuit against the Rural Development Administration is still in ongoing.

  Lee Byeong-Chun took female dogs from dog meat farms in dismal conditions and collected their eggs, which he artificially fertilized and implanted into surrogate dogs to obtain his cloned dogs. The dogs that were taken by Lee Byeong-Chun were all returned to dog meat farms where they were brutally slaughtered.

  Now it has been reported that these cloned dogs, that have spent many years in service for humans were subjected to cruel animal testing after their retirement by Lee Byeong-Chun. From dog meat farm dog egg collection to animal testing on retired working dogs – where is the end of the unethical behavior of Professor Lee Byeong-Chun?

  The bigger issue is that despite several blatant acts of animal abuse, Lee Byeong-Chun is still permitted to continue his research. Even though he has violated the law and has committed cruel cloning experiments using dog meat farm dogs, Lee Byeong-Chun is currently the research director for the Center for Companion Animal Research, which the Rural Development Administration has committed 22 billion Korean won of taxpayers’ money to develop core technology for the vitalization of the companion animal industry. That is even after the cruel egg collection incident was revealed to the public.

  The Rural Development Administration

  employs the most people with master’s and doctorate degrees among all of Korea’s national agencies, has an enormous research budget and exercises great power and authority. In 2018, in response to KARA’s demand for the dismissal of professor Lee Byeong-Chun, the Rural Development Administration stated “There is no decisive reason for his dismissal and he was chosen competitively.”

  Lee Byeong-Chun, who hides behind his researcher’s mask, must immediately be removed from his position, and the government agency who granted Lee Byeong-Chun with government funds and the authority to do research on companion animals needs to wake up and face the truth. The business of cloning dogs must be stopped!

  ▶ Unethical Lee Byeong-Chun must step down from all of his positions and stop his cruel dog cloning business!
  ▶ Seoul National University must take responsibility for Lee Byeong-Chun’s ongoing abuse of lab animals and immediately dismiss Lee Byeong-Chun!
  ▶ The government must disclose information on the dog cloning business and the Rural Development Administration must remove Lee Byeong-Chun as the head of the Center for Companion Animal Research!

  Suggested message to SNU and Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency in Korean

  연구자 탈을 쓴 동물학대 이병천을 해임하고, 자격없는 이병천에게 국비주고 반려동물 연구 맡긴 정부기관은 책임져라!

  아사 직전의 뼈만 남은 상태로 코피를 흘리며 제대로 서지도 못하고 생식기만 기이하게 커져있는 은퇴 복제견 ‘메이’. 국가 사역견은 은퇴 후 동물 실험이 금지 되어 있지만, 서울대 이병천은 은퇴한 검역 탐지견을 동물실험에 이용하였습니다.
  비슷한 처지의 ‘동이’는 심장 박동수 변화를 측정하기 위해 강제로 끊임 없이 러닝머신을 달려야 합니다. 실험이 끝나면 휴식도 없이 다시 검역탐지 임무에 투입됩니다. ‘동이’는 눈이 뒤집혀 발작을 하기도 했으며 스트레스일 가능성이 높다는 수의사의 소견이 있었습니다. 마약 성분 약으로 하루하루 버티고 있습니다.

  모두를 충격에 빠트린 2019년 4월 15일 KBS 방송에 보도된 비글들의 처참한 모습입니다.

  이번에도 서울대 이병천 교수입니다. 이미 동물권행동 카라(KARA)는 2017년 식용 개농장 개들을 불법 이용하고 있는 이병천의 비윤리적 동물실험에 대해 문제를 제기하며, 이병천에게 특수목적견 복제사업을 맡긴 농진청을 상대로 정보공개청구 소송을 해오고 있으며 정보를 숨기고 있는 농진청에 대하여 소송은 지금도 진행되고 있습니다. 이병천은 복제견을 생산하기 위해 비참한 개농장의 암컷 개들을 데려와 난자를 채취하고 대리모견에게 인공수정으로 임신시켜 복제견을 얻은 후 이 개들을 모두 개농장으로 돌려보내 도살되게 했던 장본인입니다. 그런 이병천이 이번엔 복제로 태어나 오랜 세월 인간을 위해 사역한 비글을 대상으로도 동물학대 실험을 자행하고 있다는 보도였습니다. 개농장 개 난자채취부터 은퇴 복제견을 대상으로 한 동물실험까지 서울대 이병천 교수의 비윤리적 행태의 끝은 어디일까요?

  더욱 큰 문제는 수차례 동물학대에도 불구한 이병천의 연명입니다. 법을 어기고 개농장 개들을 이용해 잔인한 복제실험을 해 온 이병천이 현재 220억원의 혈세가 투입되는, 농진청의 반려동물산업 활성화 핵심기반기술개발 연구사업의 연구단장이라는 사실을 아시나요? 그것도 난자 채취 사건이 세상에 드러난 이후에 말입니다. 농촌진흥청은 우리나라 국가기관중 가장 많은 석박사를 보유하고 막대한 연구 예산을 집행하는 등 막강한 권한을 가지고 있습니다. 농진청은 2018년 이병천 교수의 해임을 요구하는 카라에게 “결정적 해임 사유가 없고 경쟁에 의해 선정되었다”고 말한 바 있습니다.

  연구자 탈을 쓴 동물학대 이병천은 즉시 물러나야 하며, 자격없는 이병천에게 국비를 주고 반려동물 연구라는 중책을 맡긴 정부기관도 각성해야 합니다. 복제견 사업은 중단되어야 합니다. 동물실험실에서 학대받는 동물들을 살리고, 비윤리적 실험을 중단시킬 수 있도록 서명에 동참해 주시고 카라와 함께해 주시기를 부탁드립니다.

  ▶ 윤리상실 이병천은 모든 자리 내려놓고 동물학대 복제견 사업 중단하라!
  ▶ 서울대는 계속되고 있는 이병천의 실험동물 학대사건들 책임지고 이병천을 즉시 해임하라!
  ▶ 국가기관은 타당성 없는 복제견 사업 정보공개하고 농진청은 이병천을 거대국비 반려동물연구사업단장에서 즉각 해임하라!

Click the below news to learn more:
🚩 Animal rights groups call for ouster of professor for alleged animal abuse
🚩 [단독] “아사 직전에 코피까지”…서울대의 수상한 동물실험
🚩 [단독] “정기 점검 피하려 숨겼다”…서울대 윤리위 조사 착수

Click HERE to support KARA’s campaign to advocate for the voiceless animals in South Korea.