Companion Animal Administration Enters a New Era: Ulsan City Expands and Restructures Dedicated Departments

Expanding Animal Welfare and Enhancing Expertise in Livestock Disease Response

As the culture of considering companion animals as family continues to spread, administrative services related to pets are also becoming more specialized. Ulsan City is responding to the rapidly growing administrative demand and aims to strengthen animal welfare services that citizens can truly feel by reorganizing its departments to separate companion animal welfare from livestock quarantine functions.

On August 6, Ulsan City announced that the current Companion Animal Team will be divided into the Companion Animal Center Team and the Animal Quarantine Team, as part of the ninth-term municipal government’s organizational restructuring, which will take effect on August 13.

This organizational reorganization was prompted by the steady increase in demand for stray animal protection and companion animal welfare services, as well as the need to improve expertise in responding to disaster-type livestock infectious diseases such as African Swine Fever (ASF), Avian Influenza (AI), and Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD).

Previously, the department in charge had only five staff members who were responsible for both animal quarantine, with its unique characteristics, and animal protection and welfare work. As a result, there were concerns that it was difficult to promptly respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases while simultaneously managing the protection of an increasing number of stray animals and handling other companion animal-related administrative tasks.

After the division, the Companion Animal Center Team will be fully responsible for companion animal welfare and the promotion of pet-friendly culture. Key duties will include establishing a Companion Animal Health Culture Center, protecting, managing, and encouraging the adoption of stray animals, operating a Companion Animal Culture Center, preventing animal cruelty, and managing the animal registration system. Ulsan City plans to focus its administrative efforts on building a pet-friendly city where citizens and companion animals coexist.

The Animal Quarantine Team will take exclusive charge of disaster-type livestock infectious disease prevention and quarantine operations. The team will work to block the entry of diseases such as ASF, AI, and FMD and will enhance monitoring of livestock farms and build up quarantine infrastructure to maintain a safe and clean animal husbandry environment.

Recently, as the number of households raising companion animals has steadily increased, local governments’ animal welfare administration is expanding beyond mere protection to include culture, education, healthcare, and welfare. At the same time, the risk of livestock infectious diseases is rising due to climate change and expanded international trade, making the enhancement of quarantine expertise an important administrative challenge. This organizational restructuring is seen as a measure to bolster both welfare and quarantine functions in response to these changes.

An Ulsan City official stated, "This divisional reorganization aims to secure prompt responses in animal quarantine and to professionalize animal protection administration simultaneously. We will strengthen our field-based quarantine system and expand companion animal welfare infrastructure and the management of stray animals, providing administrative services that citizens can feel and doing our utmost to spread a proper culture of companion animal care."

Ulsan City Hall.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.