As Olympic venues shuttered their windows and crowds packed up their souvenirs, a few Canadians remained in Pyeongchang where unfinished work kept them focused. Humane Society International/Canada has been partnering with local organizations in South Korea for years to end one of the most complex animal abuse issues in the country: the dog meat trade.
While rooted in history, fewer South Koreans are eating what’s known as “aegogi” due to a growing pet industry and shifting views on which dog breeds are meant for consumption. South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in adopted his dog Tori from a meat farm, the first president to welcome a rescue dog into the Blue House.
Despite this, roughly 2.5 million dogs are raised annually for slaughter on an estimated 1,700 farms across the country. On these sites, dogs are crammed into paltry cages, exposed to harsh elements and provided little in the way of food, water or medical oversight. But as dog meat consumption declines, farmers are left to make difficult decisions about their dogs and their livelihoods.
That’s where HSI Canada steps in.
“As word has spread that we have this transition program available, farmers are coming to us and asking for our help in shutting down their dog meat farms and moving to more humane industries,” says Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of the Canadian branch of Humane Society International.
With a team of animal experts, veterinarians and volunteers, HSI Canada works with farmers to care for these dogs and transfer them to shelters and homes in North America, including Toronto and Montreal. Because of overpopulation in South Korean shelters, dogs are much more likely to find a home in Canada. Along with focusing on the health and safety of the dogs, HSI Canada works to match sustainable agricultural training to the farmers, helping them move into more profitable and humane industries including water distribution and blueberry farming
HSI Canada’s work is only beginning, having closed 11 dog farms and rescued 1,300 dogs. Once rescued from the farms, which Aldworth notes are most unregulated, the dogs are checked for any communicable diseases, given a battery of vaccinations and kept in quarantine for a month before being sent to Canada. Once they arrive, they are kept in another round of quarantine before being sent to humane societies across the country. Just last week, HSI sent over 80 dogs from a farm in Siheung-si, South Korea, to an HSI temporary shelter in Montreal.
HSI has seen a boon in support recently on this initiative, particularly from Olympic athletes. Canadian gold medalist Meagan Duhamel visited a farm in South Korea, adopted a dog and even greeted the animals as they arrived in Montreal.
It may seem like a publicity stunt, but Aldworth says both domestic and international dogs benefit directly from this type of media spotlight.
“The adoption of local dogs actually increases when we bring in these special cases that get a lot of media attention,” she says.
Despite the precautions HSI Canada takes and the benefit to all animals involved, scrolling through comment sections on stories about similar programs read eerily like deep-rooted partisan debates on human immigration: calls for countries to solve their own issues without international intervention, public health concerns over new diseases and demands that we help those in need at home before bringing in others.
But according to HSI/South Korea senior policy manager Borami Seo, this initiative is not one of an organization overstepping the cultural boundaries of another country.
“Make no mistake, South Korean advocates are leading the campaign to end the dog meat trade in my country,” she states in the organization’s press release.
Aldworth also advises Canadians to check their assumptions about animal welfare. “We need to examine our own perceptions of other cultures,” she says, suggesting that those who assume opposition to animal cruelty is a purely Western ideology are simply wrong.
For more information on how to support or adopt these rescue dogs, visit the Humane Society International/Canada website.
