Fifty dogs, many of them malnourished and ill or injured, are recovering at a temporary shelter in Cambridge, Ont. after they were rescued from a dog meat farm in South Korea.
The dogs are getting veterinary care in Cambridge before going to more permanent shelters in other parts of Ontario and Quebec where they will find new homes.
Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International in Canada, said more than 170 dogs in the farm were confined in "barren, filthy" wire cages with months of accumulated waste.
"The dogs were so skinny. They were very rarely getting food and water," she said. "They were covered in open sores all over their body from living on the wire floors."
"They just were suffering so much. They're really frightened, really scared. But we managed to get all 170 out."
Pip and Zinah are twin golden retrievers, which are relatively rare for a meat farm. However, animals sometimes would leave home then get picked up off the street, or they could be left by people who feel they can no longer care for their pets. (Joe Pavia/CBC)
Unregulated, legal, industry
This is the 10th dog meat facility in South Korea closed by Humane Society International since 2014. While these dogs came from South Korea, the dog meat industry also exists in other parts of Asia, including China and Vietnam and Cambodia.
In South Korea, it is legal to raise dogs for their meat.
"It's something that grew out of a tradition a long time ago into a large commercial industry," said Aldworth.
An industry, that she described as "completely unregulated" since the dogs are not actually considered livestock. She said there are no inspections of these farms for their conditions and there are no regulations that farmers need to adhere to.
Spotlight on South Korea in 2018
Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International in Canada, says her group is working with farmers to transition into more sustainable and ethical industries. (Joe Pavia/CBC)
Of the estimated 30 million dogs raised and slaughtered for meat across Asia, 2.5 million are in South Korea, according to Humane Society International.
With the winter Olympics being less than two months away in PyeongChang, South Korea, Aldworth hopes their efforts will pressure the government there to shut down the dog meat trade entirely — but she recognizes that means helping individual farmers find new work.
She said the humane society is working with farmers to transition them into financial opportunities alternative to the dog meat trade, such as berry farming.
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