Man reported to police for abandoning dog in ice cream store

A video by animal rights group Life on its YouTube channel shows the dog which was allegedly abandoned in Busan on Feb. 10. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

An animal rights group filed a complaint to the police against a man who abandoned a dog in an unmanned store.

A man appearing to be in his 50s or 60s allegedly abandoned a white dog in an unmanned ice cream shop in Busan around midnight on Feb. 10, according to an animal rights group Life.

The store's CCTV footage shows the man putting the dog down in the store and then walking away after closing the store's door, which was open when he first entered the store on camera.

The footage showed the dog sniffing around the store for hours after it was left alone.

"The dog was in the store for almost 12 hours," the owner of the store said. "I gave it some dog food because I felt bad."

The dog was a healthy 4-month-old puppy, according to a vet who performed a checkup on it.

Life thought there was a high possibility that the man intentionally abandoned the dog, and filed a complaint against him for violating animal rights laws.

"Animal abandonment is a crime," said Shim In-seop, head of Life, adding that people need to report any sign of animal abandonment to an investigation agency.

Current animal protection laws stipulate that "no owner or keeper of an animal shall abandon the animal" and levies a fine of 3 million won ($2,300) to violators.

BY HA SU-YOUNG [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]