A SBS TV program called SOS 24 has uncovered how a man who was employed on a dog farm was abused by his employer with beatings, no pay, and excessive work. The dog-farm owner got away with this because the man had a mental disability. The man's family reportedly could not stop the situation, but one of them, it turned out, was actually a part of the exploitation.

The abused man’s name is Yu Gyoung Su, 49. He had to wake up at 3 in the morning and work through until night, caring for the 200 dogs on a dog farm. One of his jobs was to boil water and cook rice in a huge pot for the dogs.

His living quarters was a decrepit steel container with a simple gas range for cooking. His clothes were ragged, filthy, and full of holes.

The owner of the dog farm, Na Sung Deok, 50, admitted to the situation and insisted that they had both come to an agreement that Mr. Yu would work without pay. According to Mr. Na, “He had been living like an unemployed, homeless alcoholic, so working without pay was fine with him.”

The sister of the abused man said she was grateful that her brother had a place to work instead of lying drunk in the streets. However, she had secretly made a contract with the dog-farm owner to receive wages of 700,000 won a month on the abused man’s behalf.

An attorney, Kim Jae Chul said, "There is a law against a third party making off with a worker’s wages. That’s against the exploitation law." The sister of the abused man and the dog-farm owner were reported to the police and a strict enforcement of the law has been promised.

Mr. Yu has since been transferred to a facility for the mentally handicapped by a handicap organization’s lawyers and by the psychiatric society.

Upon physical examination, Mr. Yu was found to have 3 broken ribs. The doctors said it appeared that Mr. Yu had been repeatedly beaten in the ribs. Presumably, this was done by the dog farm owner.

The meat industry is notorious for the exploitation of workers and animals alike. It appears that the dog farmer, a man used to exploiting dogs for profit, had no moral objection or hesitation in exploiting a person who was also in a weak and powerless position.