In an ideal world, we’d take a proactive approach towards tackling South Korea’s long-integrated cultural beliefs that surround the consumption dog meat. By educating the next generation, we can interrupt this cycle of misinformation and promote a more compassionate, kinder future for all. Sadly, it isn’t that straightforward…
Dog meat is neither legal nor explicitly banned in South Korea, while the practices surrounding it are widely absent from classrooms, which makes launching any kind of education programme virtually impossible.
And it’s a similar story for potential sterilisation campaigns. While steri-drives have helped alleviate stray dog populations all around the world, from South Africa and Thailand, to Puerto Rico and Bulgaria, the majority of dogs found in South Korea’s meat farms have been specifically bred for purpose. Some have even been stolen from unwitting owners, as the demand for dog meat is unrelenting.
As such, sterilisation would do little to stop the brutality.
Despite this, we’re determined to help.
We ACT is a non-profit organisation working out of Korea, where their small but mighty team work towards closing down dog meat farms. Run solely by volunteers, We ACT liberate the dogs found on such farms, rehabilitating them through foster and finding them homes around the world, where they’ll finally be free of past traumas and the risk of re-capture.
We’re incredibly proud to be working with We ACT to rescue just a handful of deserving dog meat farm survivors, flying them to the UK and finding them homes.
A huge thank you to Ivy and Annie from We ACT, for working with us on this project.
We’re excited to share rescue plans in the near future, but for now, let’s meet our South Korean rescues.
All three of our South Korean rescues were liberated from Siheung meat farm, in the North of the country, earlier in 2020. Since then, they’ve been safe in the care of the We ACT foster network, building their confidence and preparing them for their new lives.
The team at We ACT run solely on the public donations in order to fund their rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming work. We’re hopeful that our support will fund the rescue of Dawn, Doori and Alisha with the potential to work with We ACT further in the future, helping them continue to close down meat farms across South Korea.
To help make this a possibility, please consider supporting our work across Asia.
In addition to rehoming these 5 gorgeous souls, we’re launching a South Korea “takeover” this February where we’ll be speaking to the teams on the ground; raising awareness and funds; and sharing some happy endings too!
You can join our South Korea Week over on our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Or head to our blog to read more about the dog meat trade: it’s origins, challenges and, most importantly, how you can help.