If a nation's moral progress is judged by the way its animals are treated, then Korea is morally backward and well behind the rest of the modernized world.

Passionate animal activist and leader of the Korean Association for Animal Protection (KAAP), Lee Won-Bok leads the rally's cries for justice.

In Korea, animal abusing scum can get away with murder. Because of this, on Sunday, January 24, 2010, a number of animal welfare groups came together, including Love Animal Association, CARE, Korea Animal Protection Association and KARA, along with other activists to protest the crimes of the Songpa dog torturer and the lack of proper animal protection laws in Korea.

Activists gathered in the cold outside the Seoul City Plaza to call upon the Judicial Committees, the Prosecution Office, the Police Departments to strengthen Korea's weak animal rights laws that invariably give criminal offenders no more than a minor fine.

Activists put on masks with the picture of one of the abused dogs on them. A number of foreigners were present to lend support, too. The press were on hand to photograph the event, and it was later reported widely on the internet, with the resounded message from journalists and commentators to the government to WAKE UP!

This protest comes after the January 17 SBS broadcast of a show called Animal Farm which examined the dog torturing case. There were at least 8 dogs that a serial abuser and killer viciously attacked in his home and then threw out into trash bins. Only 4 survived.

The Songpa psycho burned animals with lighters on the face and lower belly, force fed pieces of cutter blades, pulled out dogs' toe nails with pliers, and one dog’s nose was tightly wired shut until the skin broke and bled profusely. Other dogs were beaten about the head, thrown against the walls, choked, and strangled to death.

This person is now back at his apartment, a free man who could go right ahead and commit more sadistic tortures. Would you tolerate such an individual in your neighborhood? In a couple of years time, as this psycho's pathological impulses continue and are allowed to worsen unchecked, maybe it will be a young child who is attacked.

A few years back, in 2007, a revised law was added to the animal protection law. That law stated that animal abusers found guilty would be fined five million won. However, since then a series of cases have shown that this law is worthless because it is not enforced.

For example, a mother cat and a baby kitten were thrown out from a 17th floor apartment and died. The fine was only 50,000 won (around $50 US). A man burned a cat to death while it was stuck in a cage. He was fined only 250,000 won. A dog was repeatedly beaten over a period of several months and sustained 70 broken bones. The fine was only 200,000 won. Pathetic--and something that brings shame to Korea.

After the rally, everyone headed for a warm coffee shop and took over a corner of it. This was where a lot of ideas were expressed, networking took place, and information was exchanged.

Discussion surrounded the need for reform and revise animal rights legislation, welfare and protection. People debated the need to get tougher with the sentencing of abusers and to expand existing laws.

The issue of strays and pet abandonment were also discussed with a stress on planning and strategies. It was agreed that irresponsible pet owners need to be held to account. Also, laws should allow animals to be taken away from abusive owners, and such individuals should be forbidden to possess animals. Talk went on for a couple of hours.

Everyone thought it was a good idea that such meetings, with representatives of various animal rights groups gathered together, should occur more often. In this way, a united front can be mounted to combat and hopefully resolve the deplorable animal rights situation in Korea.