A woman in her 40s who captured a wild crow and kept it at home for about a week has received a suspended sentence with a fine.

According to the legal community, Judge Lee Yong-hee of Criminal Division 6 at the Uijeongbu District Court sentenced a woman in her 40s, identified as A, to a fine of 700,000 won with a suspended sentence, after she was indicted for violating the Wildlife Protection and Management Act.

A suspended sentence is a measure where guilt is recognized but the punishment is withheld in consideration of extenuating circumstances; if the offender commits no other crimes for two years, the punishment is waived.

A was put on trial for capturing a crow at a park under the Gagum Railway Bridge in Nogyang-dong, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do in early June of last year and keeping it at her residence.

The case came to light after a complaint alleging that A was raising a crow was filed with Uijeongbu City through e-People, a government civil petition portal.

Police found that A discovered a baby crow sitting near the railway bridge, took it to her home, and raised it inside a box and a cage.

During police questioning, A reportedly stated, "I found a baby crow on my way back from hiking and brought it home because I felt sorry for it. After raising it for about a week, I put the crow back in a box and returned it to where I first found it."

The court stated, "We took into consideration that the defendant is a first-time offender who is reflecting on her crime, and that there were extenuating circumstances as she committed the offense without knowing the relevant laws."

The Wildlife Protection Act prohibits the arbitrary capture, collection, or killing of wild animals and plants designated by Ministry of Environment Ordinance, even if they are not endangered species.

Acquiring, transporting, or keeping wildlife while knowing it was illegally captured is also subject to punishment.

Although crows are not endangered species, they are classified under the Wildlife Protection Act as wild animals whose capture and collection are prohibited.

According to wild bird protection organizations and other sources, crows are known for their high cognitive abilities, such as recognizing human faces and remembering them for a long time, with some species even making and using tools.

Due to these traits, cases of capturing young crows to raise them like pets reportedly occur from time to time.

Yoon Soon-young, chairman of the Korea Wild Bird Protection Association, said, "Wild birds should be left to live naturally in the wild, and they should not be captured and confined out of an individual's desire to raise them." He added, "We have recently received reports that near Paldang Dam and the outskirts of Seoul, people feed migratory birds or capture them to raise in vinyl greenhouses so they can charge money for taking pictures."

He emphasized, "Capturing and confining wild birds is an act of depriving them of their freedom. Restricting wild animals for personal desires constitutes animal abuse."

(Photo: Yonhap News)