🚨Urgent: Missile Strikes Shelter in Ukraine! Rush Emergency Aid!
Thirty Dogs Rescued From South Korea’s Dog Meat Trade Arrive in the U.S. for a Second Chance
Guest Contributor
Nearly 30 dogs rescued from South Korea’s dog meat industry have arrived in the United States, beginning a very different chapter from the one they narrowly escaped. Rescued by Humane World for Animals, these survivors of a dog meat farm in Gangjin landed in New York and are now settling into a care and rehabilitation center in Maryland. From there, they will be matched with shelter and rescue partners and, ultimately, with families ready to adopt dogs rescued from South Korea’s dog meat farms.
This rescue carries particular weight because it marks Humane World for Animals’ final large-scale dog meat farm rescue in South Korea before the country’s historic dog meat ban comes fully into force in February 2027. Since 2015, the organization has helped save nearly 3,000 dogs from such farms. The latest group includes Jindos, a husky mix, and a variety of small and medium-sized dogs such as a spitz mix. They were the last dogs left on a farm that once bred and killed as many as 1,000 dogs every year.
On this farm, the signs of the past were everywhere. Rows of rusting cages stood empty where dogs once lived confined, with the ground strewn with discarded collars and the skeletal jaw bones of dogs that died long before anyone arrived to help. The scene illustrates how far the industry has declined and why this particular rescue is seen as symbolic. According to the organization, most registered dog meat farms in South Korea have already closed and the industry is regarded as being in its sunset phase.
After their arrival in the United States, the rescued dogs began a period of recovery and assessment. Humane World for Animals follows strict national and local health and safety guidelines. Each dog is evaluated by a veterinarian, vaccinated against rabies, distemper, hepatitis, parvo virus, parainfluenza, leptospira and canine influenza, and screened for respiratory illness as needed. Only when the dogs are stable and ready will they be placed with shelter and rescue partners for adoption into permanent homes.
Humane World for Animals
The scale of what these dogs escaped becomes clearer in the context of South Korea’s recent legislation and statistics. In January 2024, the National Assembly unanimously passed a Special Act banning the dog meat industry. Once the law is fully in effect on February 7, 2027, it will be illegal to farm, kill, butcher or sell dogs or dog meat for human consumption. Violations can bring up to two years in prison and fines of up to ₩30 million, which is about US$20,637.
Government figures show the challenge of helping individual animals amid a large, entrenched industry. Of nearly 393,857 dogs on farms that have already shut down, an estimated 381,465 or about 97 percent were slaughtered or moved to other farms. Only 623 dogs were adopted and 498 were sent to public shelters. That means 1,121 dogs in total or just 0.3 percent made it out alive. Humane World for Animals notes that it is the only international animal organization that has conducted large-scale rescues and overseas adoptions from these farms, which makes the Gangjin survivors some of the very few to find safety and the chance of family life.
In May 2026, South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs reported that 82 percent of the country’s registered dog meat farms, or 1,265 farms, had already closed ahead of the full enforcement of the ban. That leaves 272 farms still operating during the transition period. The broader system has included thousands of businesses connected to dog meat, including farms, slaughterhouses, traders and restaurants. At the same time, opinion surveys indicate a clear shift in public attitudes. According to the latest polling cited in the report, 86 percent of South Koreans say they have no interest in eating dog meat.
Behind these numbers are the lives that were once lived on farms like the one in Gangjin. Dogs raised for meat endure intense physical and psychological hardship. They are typically confined in small, barren wire cages and deprived of basic needs such as proper food, clean water, shelter from harsh weather, enrichment or veterinary care. The report notes that death is usually by electrocution, underscoring the suffering built into the system from start to finish.
The path that led to this particular rescue began when a member of the public alerted a local animal protection group about the farm. Working together with Humane World for Animals, they notified local authorities. Officials then cited the farm for violations of the Animal Protection Act, specifically rules governing how animals are housed and managed. The 80-year-old farm operator agreed to surrender the remaining dogs, sign a written promise to leave the dog meat industry, and allow the animals to be rehomed rather than slaughtered.
In all, more than 70 dogs were rescued from this one location. Alongside the almost 30 now recovering in Maryland, another 12 have been transferred to the organization’s rehabilitation center in Montreal, Canada. Several mother dogs with young puppies are still in South Korea because they are too young to make the long flight. The Humane World for Animals team in South Korea is overseeing their care until they are ready to travel to North America, which is expected in early 2027.
Sangkyung Lee, Humane World for Animals’ Korea campaign manager, reflected on what this final large-scale farm rescue represents. For more than a decade, the organization’s teams have entered dog meat farms, documented the conditions and carried out rescues. Lee describes this as both emotionally difficult and critically important work, involving close contact with the suffering experienced by thousands of dogs. Concluding this chapter by sending the last group of rescued dogs from a dying industry to new lives in the United States and Canada is described as a profound and fitting close to a ten-year effort. It also aligns with what Lee characterizes as a new relationship emerging in South Korea, one that sees dogs as companions rather than food.
While the organization’s large-scale rescue operations in South Korea are winding down as the ban takes hold, its work on the dog and cat meat trade is not over. Humane World for Animals will focus on monitoring how the dog meat ban is enforced and whether farms comply with the law. At the same time, it continues to work elsewhere in Asia. The group supports locally led efforts to end the dog and cat meat trade in Viet Nam, Indonesia and India, and collaborates with a China-based animal charity to address the issue in parts of China. These projects aim for long-term, sustainable solutions that consider local contexts and community leadership.
I found this detail striking: despite the grim statistics that show only a tiny fraction of dogs on shuttered farms have been rescued, this particular mission manages to tell a different story for at least some of them. The nearly 30 dogs resting in Maryland, the 12 now in Montreal, and the mothers and puppies waiting in South Korea represent a small number when set against hundreds of thousands, yet they also embody a broader transition in law and public opinion. Their journey from rusting cages in Gangjin to future couches and yards in North America highlights both the depth of past suffering and the possibility of a different future for dogs in the region.