We recently told you about one of our biggest rescue efforts to date in South Korea, where we saved 41 dogs and puppies from the fate of being killed in the country’s brutal dog meat trade. We were sadly too late to save some who were seriously ill, but the survivors are now thriving in our care, and we can’t wait to see them get adopted!

While dog meat farms are an obvious source fueling the dog meat trade, shelters are also contributing to it. They’re often filled with puppies whose mothers have been killed, and these young ones are typically suffering from a host of health issues, and aren’t spayed or neutered.  

Some shelters require people to pay a small spay/neuter fee, but dogs at most shelters are free, and restaurants and dog meat traders are widely known to source dogs from them by lying, and posing as adopters.

We’re incredibly thrilled to have been able to save 41 dogs and puppies from ever experiencing that gruesome fate with our rescue partner Jindo Love Rescue. We were initially only going to get a small group, but we knew we couldn’t leave a single one behind. 

The last time we visited this particular shelter, the air conditioning was on high in an attempt to kill the puppies who were weak, and all of them had pneumonia. We later learned all of the dogs there died, and we couldn’t let that happen again, or let them become victims of an even worse fate in the dog meat trade.

Over three separate trips, we got them all, save for two puppies the shelter wouldn’t release because they were sick. We tried to get them too, but believe they have both died.

This group of dogs we saved is mostly very young puppies and a few younger dogs, who are estimated to be 2-years-old at the most — it’s rare to see a dog over a year old in a shelter in South Korea because older dogs are killed for meat.  

Sadly, we were too late to save many who were seriously ill — 15 of these precious puppies have died so far from parvo, but we’re doing everything we can to save the survivors. So far, the rest are doing wonderfully at our main foster center in Gimhae, where they’re settling in and finally each getting the love and care they deserve.

Most importantly, they’re getting a second chance at life. Soon, they’ll be available for adoption and will hopefully each soon find their perfect forever families.

We’re grateful to have been able to have saved these lives. A rescue of this magnitude takes a lot of time and resources, and we couldn’t pull it off without generous donations from our supporters.

Please help us continue this lifesaving work and get these sweet dogs to their forever homes in the U.S. and Canada by making a donation.

You can also help by becoming a flight volunteer, or adopting one of these amazing dogs!