The number of newly registered pet dogs in South Korea rose nearly 40 percent in 2018 from a year earlier, the country’s animal quarantine agency said Monday. Around 147,000 new dogs were registered to the state-run Animal Protection Management System last year, compared with the newly registered 105,000 pet dogs a year earlier, according to the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency.

Since 2014, all pet owners are obligated to register their dogs to the system. As of 2018, the accumulated number of registered dogs in the country reached 1.3 million, according to the agency. The number of rescued stray animals, meanwhile, also increased sharply over the period.

Around 120,000 animals were under protection at 298 shelters across the country as of last year. Dogs accounted for around 75 percent of the rescued animals, while cats took up 23.2 percent, according to the agency. Only 27.6 percent of them found new owners, while 13 percent were returned to their original owners. Around 20 percent were euthanized. The government spent 20 billion won (US$16.9 million) running the shelters in 2018.

(Yonhap)