Olympian silver medalist Gus Kenworthy recently had a close encounter of the puppy kind, and it’s making the world seem like a kinder, gentler place as a result. That’s because he and boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas adopted an adorable ball of fluff and rescued 89 other dogs that had been intended for dinner tables all over South Korea, People notes.
The freestyle skier, who competed at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongyang, South Korea, is collaborating with The Humane Society International, and was able to convince the farmer who owned a dog meat farm to shut his operation down, Unilad reports. The lucky canines will be transported to the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s what he had to say on Instagram:
This isn’t the first time Kenworthy has been a hero for dogs; he also rescued five homeless strays during the Sochi games in Russia in 2014, where he won a silver medal.
Unfortunately, eating dog meat is a long-standing tradition in Korea because people still foolishly believe that doing so can improve virility, but it’s a cruel practice. As for improving virility, the only reason this would be vaguely true is that those who sell dogs for meat often inject them with steroids, including testosterone and other hormones, according to International Aid for Korean Animals.
In many cases, customers purchase living dogs who are forcefully dragged out of their cages and taken somewhere out of sight, The Daily Mail reports. They are then electrocuted with a metal rod placed behind their heads, and animal activists say that it sometimes takes several minutes for the dogs to die. If a dog doesn’t die quick enough, some butchers resort to smashing its skull in with a mallet.
How utterly barbaric.
South Korea adopted its first Animal Protection Law in 1991, but the country has never banned the slaughter of dogs for their meat. Instead, it has banned the use of brutality in killing animals.
Quite obviously, that’s being ignored.
Unlike beef, pork, or chicken, dogs are not excluded from the Livestock Processing Act of 1962. Therefore, there are no regulations regarding how dogs are slaughtered for food and as such, dogs are killed in shamefully cruel ways — and electrocution isn’t the only way they are killed. Sometimes they are hanged or reportedly beaten to death.
Fortunately, this tradition seems to be dying out, as a 2007 survey found that 59 percent of Koreans aged 30 or younger said they don’t eat dog meat.
Nevertheless, as Kenworthy noted, there are still vast numbers of dog farms across South Korea, which he noted on his Instagram post.
“This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visited [sic] to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea,” he wrote. “Across the country, there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable.”
He said that while he realizes that eating dog meat is part of the South Korean culture and feels that it’s “not his place” to “impose Western ideals on the people here,” the dogs are being subjected to horrific conditions.
“The way these animals are being treated, however, is completely inhumane and culture should never be a scapegoat for cruelty.”
So little Beemo, the pup adopted by Kenworthy and Wilkas, will arrive in her new home in America after she’s received all her vaccinations. Perhaps she’ll be able to sniff noses with Moo-tae, the cute doxie rescued last year by Canadian figure skater Meagan Duhamel.
Kenworthy said that he hopes stories like this will inspire others to help dogs incarcerated in these cruel farms across the Winter Olympics host country.
“I’m hoping to use this visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trade here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the U.S. where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes.”
He’s encouraging people to see how they can help. Considering how much man’s best friend does for us, it’s the least we can do.