A handler at the Onam 119 Safety Center in Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do Province, on Jan. 19, 2024, pets retiring rescue dog Arongi, who joined the Gyeonggi-do Northern Special Response Team in 2017. The canine worked at 312 rescue scenes over seven years, rescuing four survivors and finding five corpses. (Yonhap News)

By Yoo Yeong Gyeong

Streamlining of the national data system for animal protection has been completed to manage permits for raising fierce dogs and adopting retired service animals.

The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) on March 13 announced on the website of its National Animal Protection Information System (www.animal.go.kr) four new functions like management of permits for raising fierce dogs, along with three services for functional improvement including compilation of real-time data on animal rescue and adoption.

The measures are expected to more thoroughly manage fierce dogs and ensure the efficient adoption of canines retired from public service. They will also set the basis for setting animal testing ethics and systematically managing animal welfare livestock farms.

This project's four new functions are management of permits for the raising and import of fierce dogs; adoption of national service animals (i.e., those for quarantine and narcotics detection or the military); launch of a public committee on the ethics of animal experimentation; and certification of animal welfare livestock farms.

For higher user convenience, three functions are streamlined like data on animal rescue and adoption in real time and expansion of registered information on pet adoptions. The addresses of pet owners are also automatically linked to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Resident Registration Computer Information System.

"We have actively accepted the opinions of users of the National Animal Protection Information System and advanced it," APQA Commissioner Kim Jung-hee said. "We will keep pushing for a user-centric system that satisfies users by releasing more useful information and diversifying the conveniences provided."

dusrud21@korea.kr