According to political sources on Sept. 23, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a recent briefing to the National Assembly that it would designate and operate public animal hospitals in 2027. The plan is to support treatment for pets owned by vulnerable households, abandoned and lost animals, and service animals, while expanding a public-interest standard fee schedule that sets appropriate costs for each treatment item, centered on public animal hospitals. The introduction of public animal hospitals and the expansion of the standard fee schedule is one of the Lee administration's 123 policy tasks, aimed at easing the burden of veterinary costs.
The ministry, however, did not include new program funding for public animal hospitals in next year's budget proposal. The ministry's overall budget proposal stands at a record 22.22 trillion won, up 10.4% from a year earlier, yet it failed to secure fiscal support for the public animal hospital initiative it presented as a national policy task.
"Contrary to what we had initially expected, the budget (for public animal hospitals) was not included at the government stage," a ministry official said. "We had envisioned providing public veterinary care in partnership with university animal hospitals in each region, but with the funding left out, we are reviewing alternatives." The official stressed that the public animal hospital project itself is not being halted, explaining that because designating public animal hospitals requires no direct budget, the ministry is considering options including implementing the system first.
Some, however, say the move is out of step with the government's policy direction. An amendment to the Veterinarians Act that cleared the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee on Sept. 2 establishes the legal basis for public animal hospitals and explicitly allows support for costs needed to expand facilities and equipment and to run the hospitals. Without funding to back the institutional framework, critics say, the introduction of public animal hospitals could amount to little more than a slogan.
Public animal hospitals also carry significance in improving transparency across the animal healthcare system. The ministry plans to establish public-interest standard fees for vulnerable households covering basic treatment items such as initial and follow-up consultations, hospitalization fees, blood tests, vaccinations and X-rays, and apply them first at public animal hospitals. It also plans to designate private animal hospitals that follow the public-interest standard fees as "win-win animal hospitals" to spread the practice into the private sector.
The government and ruling party are also pushing to expand disclosure of veterinary medical records. The Veterinarians Act amendment that cleared the committee would allow animal owners to review or obtain copies of their animals' treatment records when necessary to pursue dispute mediation or litigation.
