Police on Thursday raided the office and related facilities of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth over accusations that the organization ‘s head Park So-youn euthanised rescued dogs and embezzled donations.

Jongro Police Station sent investigators to the CARE offices around 10 a.m. to secure the organization’s accounting documents. The raid included Park’s house, CARE’s Wonseo-dong office, its animal shelters and adoption centers. 

Park faces allegations that she euthanised over 230 rescued dogs between 2015 and 2018, despite to CARE‘s widely publicised “no-kill” policy. Park is also under allegations of sending the bodies of some 20 stray animals to a local university’s veterinary school laboratory, breaking the Animal Protection Act that prohibits experiments on stray dogs. 

She is also accused of spending donations to CARE on things unrelated to the organization. CARE is one of the largest funded animal rights groups in South Korea, and was reported to have raised 1.6 billion won in 2017 through donations.

The police plans to thoroughly analyze the obtained documents and summon Park for an investigation as soon as possible.

Accused by multiple civic groups on Jan 18. of fraud, embezzlement, and violating the Animal Protection Act, Park admitted euthanising the rescued dogs, but released a statement that the animals’ deaths were “inevitable.”

By Lee Tae-hee (taeheelee@heraldcorp.com)