Why do other countries find lost pets faster than South Korea?

In the United Kingdom, even cats kept exclusively indoors must be registered. The United States requires owners to update pet registration records regularly, and Germany links registration to a pet ownership tax. These countries have built systems that go beyond registration to manage the data on an ongoing basis. South Korea, by contrast, remains focused on a dog-centered registration regime, and experts say the country needs to both expand the range of animals covered and strengthen post-registration data management.

A report released Monday by the Korea Rural Economic Institute, titled "Current Status and Improvement Plans for the Pet Registration System," found that major countries use pet registration not only to prevent lost and abandoned animals but also as a core foundation for animal welfare, disease prevention and policy development.

The UK leads the way. After making microchip registration mandatory for dogs in 2016, it expanded the requirement to cats under 20 weeks of age starting in 2024. Cats kept solely indoors must register without exception, and owners who fail to do so face fines.

The United States operates its registration system through state and local governments and requires regular updates to registration records. Many jurisdictions link registration to rabies vaccination, and various incentives — including reduced registration fees for spayed or neutered pets — encourage voluntary compliance.

Germany's system is notable for combining registration with a pet ownership tax. Local governments link dog registration to the tax, and mandatory microchip registration ensures records are managed systematically. Japan also requires owners to register dogs within a set period after acquisition and, since 2022, has mandated microchip implants for dogs and cats sold commercially.

The institute identified five common features across these countries: expanding the range of animals subject to registration, consolidating registration around microchip-based systems, continuously updating registration records, linking registration fees and ownership taxes to welfare policies, and managing registration from the point of sale. The institute noted that these countries go beyond simply raising registration rates — they continuously maintain registration data and connect it to animal welfare policy, disease control and the management of lost and abandoned animals.

South Korea has required dog registration since 2014, but cat registration remains limited to pilot projects run by select local governments. The number of pet-owning households has consistently grown, yet more than 100,000 animals are lost or abandoned each year, underscoring the need not only to raise registration rates but also to ensure the accuracy and currency of registration data.

In response, the institute proposed several improvements: expanding registration to include cats and other animals, simplifying registration procedures, reviewing the introduction of a registration-update system, upgrading the registration data management platform, making pre-adoption education mandatory, supporting registration costs for low-income households, and expanding incentives for registered animals. The institute particularly said that linking registration to the point of sale and building a system that continuously manages owner and pet information after registration are essential to making the regime effective.

"The pet registration system is a core foundation not only for preventing lost and abandoned animals but also for efficiently advancing related policies based on accurate registration data," Kim Dong-hun, an associate research fellow at KREI, said in the report. "There is a need to consistently improve the registration data management system alongside expanding registration coverage."