South Korea: 70 dogs rescued from meat farm ahead of 2027 ban

The international organization Humane World for Animals conducted an operation in one of the last remaining active farms in the country

South Korea is ready to ban the slaughter and consumption of dog meat. The total ban will be effective from February 2027 but is not yet in force. And precisely in this context, at a time in which those who have done business in the sector up to now are trying to rush to kill and sell the last dogs at their disposal, the rescue operation of 70 specimens from a Gangjn farm which had reached the point of slaughtering up to 1000 animals a year has arrived, carried out by the organization Humane World for Animals. The rescued dogs belong to breeds such as Jindo, German shepherd, corgi, husky and spitz crosses.

A citizen's report

The rescue was possible thanks to the report of a citizen who had reported the farm to a local animal protection organization. This collaborated with Humane World for Animals by informing local authorities who accused the farm of violating the rules of the Animal Protection Act. The owner of the farm then agreed to hand over the dogs to Humane World for Animals and signed a written undertaking not to continue his dog meat trading business.

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The agreement with the breeder

The eighty-year-old breeder agreed to entrust the remaining dogs to Hwa - which has long promoted similar rescue and awareness initiatives in Vietnam, Indonesia and India, but also in China with a partnership with a local animal protection group - and to sign a written commitment to no longer contribute to the dog meat trade, thus ensuring that the dogs could be saved and entrusted to new families, rather than destined for slaughter, and that no other dog was exposed to this risk anymore.

An increasingly rare practice

The consumption of dog meat is increasingly rare in South Korea and throughout the East, many of the once active breeders have already been closed, but some remain open and Human World for Animals, the only international organization to operate this type of rescue by coordinating the adoption of specimens saved in countries such as South Korea, Vietnam, India and China, stated that, according to government data, since the approval of the ban in February 2024, only 0.3% of dogs are still inside farms of this type were saved.

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Organizational satisfaction

Sangkyung Lee, head of the association's campaigns in South Korea, expressed satisfaction with the success of the operation: "These 70 dogs are among the very last to suffer in an industry now in decline, and being able to transfer them to the United States and Canada, where they can start a new life together with loving families, seems like the perfect way to conclude our ten-year mission, just as South Korea begins a new chapter in its relationship with dogs, finally starting to consider them as friends and not as food."