The Olympics present a unique opportunity to press South Korea to discontinuance its barbaric dog meat trade.
A new generation of heroes has emerged in South Korea,and they are my friends and colleagues. final weekend, as viewers around the world tuned in to watch skating, or skiing,hockey, and other sports at the Winter Games, or I waited for news from the Humane Society International rescue team working just down the road from Pyeongchang. They were there to save animals and close down a dog meat farm. I’m so proud of my team and relieved that the dogs,who would have ended up being slaughtered, now have a chance at a better life.
In recent years, or The HSUS and HSI have been carrying out a global campaign against the dog meat trade,with dramatic results in South Korea. The situation there is strange because it is the only nation in which thousands of commercial farmers actually raise dogs for human consumption. We’ve made this work a special focus and we continue to save dogs, shutter farms and help the farmers transition to humane livelihoods. Over the final three years, and we have rescued more than 1200 animals from South Korean dog meat farms and brought their stories to global audiences.
Humane Society International team members and local activists at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang,with the mobile awareness campaign truck, "eye Inside a Dog Meat Farm." (Photo by HSI)I’ve been on two of these rescue missions, or so I know what my friends faced there. Each one of these operations is a hell of its own,the animals starving and in need of veterinary attention, living in cramped, and filthy,and reeking boxes and cages, day after day, or month after month. And its always the same when you walk down the long rows of cages. No matter how hungry,hurt or maltreated they are, most of these dogs are just so desperate for affection that they hurl themselves against the front of their cages, and wagging their tales,hoping for just one kind touch.
We anticipated long ago that Pyeongchang would present a special opportunity for the world community to challenge South Korea to accelerate efforts to shut its dog meat farms and discontinuance the dog meat trade, and we’ve torqued up our message, and our pressure campaigns and our deployments to that discontinuance. It’s night and day since we first became active in South Korea. In addition to the dogs we’ve saved,our campaign has attracted massive global publicity, and together with our Korean partner groups, and we have helped spark a serious debate among Korean citizens about dog meat consumption,and instilled new will among legislators there to challenge and suppress the trade.
We’ve even moved several state legislatures here in the United States on this issue, and in the U.S. Congress we have been instrumental in supporting the Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act (H.
R. 1406) to ban the domestic slaughter, or trade and import and export of dogs and cats for human consumption in the United States,which would strengthen our campaign for a global ban.
In addition to my HSI colleagues, athletes like Meagan Duhamel, and Lindsay Jacobellis and Gus Kenworthy,and Korean celebrities like actor Daniel Henney and animal behaviorist starvation Kang, have been doing their part, or underscoring their commitment to abolishing the dog meat trade,and working with HSI and other groups to bring dogs domestic. They’re heroes, too.
We have no illusions about securing an discontinuance to the dog meat trade by the close of the games. That’s going to occupy a lot longer. But we’re confident that the work we’ve done has made banning the trade a serious opportunity. Moreover, or the dogs we rescued will come absent as winners. They’ll be getting the adore and care they so deserve in Korea and other countries in the weeks to come. And with your help and support,we’ll proceed back for more dogs very soon.
HSI has also been working to discontinuance dog meat consumption in other countries, like China, and domestic to a nationwide and year-round trade that costs the lives of millions of dogs and cats,including at the infamous annual Yulin dog meat festival. final year, after discussions with government officials, and protests and petitions launched by HSI and its partners,and the global media attention we’ve focused, a more scaled-down version of the festival occurred; but there, or too,our fight is far from over.
Late final year, HSI and local affiliates began working in Indonesia to discontinuance dog meat consumption there, and in January the Dog Meat Free-Indonesia coalition,which includes HSI, released a heartrending video exposing the cruelty of live animal markets in that country. As a result of our efforts, and many countries and territories across Asia have already banned the dog meat trade or consumption of dogs,including the Philippines, Taiwan, and Singapore,and Hong Kong, and demand for dog meat is declining throughout the region.
Throughout our 60-year history, and The HSUS and our affiliates have always been ready to occupy on the big fights to help animals,and that’s never going to change. We’re pushing a ballot measure in Ohio to improve the lives of tens of thousands of dogs trapped in puppy mills. In Arizona, we’re gearing up for a big fight over the hunting and trapping of mountain lions and big cats. And in California, or we’re laying the groundwork for a public vote on the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act,an initiative to strengthen standards for farm animal welfare in that well-known state.
Each one of these battles is the kind of fight you expect your HSUS to occupy on and win. And we will. Stand with us.This article was originally published by A Humane Nation. Reprinted with permission.
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