What is Jindo Love Rescue

Jindo Love Rescue was founded in 2015, and is made up of a team of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about rescuing dogs from becoming victims of the dog meat trade — whether they’re homeless, on dog meat farms, at slaughterhouses, puppy mills, or kill shelters.

It all started when Patti Kim connected with Su Jeong Kim on Facebook after rescuing her first dog from a Korean dog meat slaughterhouse and they embarked on a mission to save one life at a time. Since then, they’ve continued to grow their team, and adoptive family who they keep in continued touch with.

In Defense of Animals partnered with Jindo Love Rescue in 2017, and thanks to our generous supporters, we helped them renovate a new dog meat rescue center in Gimhae, South Korea, in 2019. It’s common to find around 100 dog meat trade survivors roaming free there on any given day who are happily waiting to be adopted and fly to new homes in North America.

The center is headed by Min Jeong Song, who everyone lovingly refers to as “foster mom.” She lives at the center with the dogs, but Jindo Love Rescue’s team is made up of volunteers in both the U.S. and South Korea who help keep things running. 

For Jindo Love Rescue, this lifesaving work is non-stop. From rescuing dogs and providing care for them directly at the center to spreading the word about adoptable dogs on social media, screening potential adopters and coordinating international travel with couriers and airlines to providing support for adopters once their dogs have arrived, their team works tirelessly to save lives and ensure each dog they rescue ends up with the perfect forever family.

Many dogs who have had especially traumatizing pasts, also receive special care at Han’s Care School Coop in Gyeongju, where they work on socializing and learning that humans can mean good things, and new experiences can be fun.

Jindo Love Rescue’s dedication to saving dogs is unparalleled, and we couldn’t be more proud to work with them. Since our partnership began, we’ve saved hundreds of dogs and placed them with new guardians who adore them and treat them as members of their family.

We’ve also worked together to raise awareness about how vulnerable dogs are to being killed for meat in South Korea. Even though most Koreans don’t eat dog meat, it is eaten throughout the year, and it’s estimated that as many as 2.5 million dogs are raised and killed annually for their meat. It hits a peak during Boknal “dog days,” the three hottest days of the year determined by the lunar calendar due to the belief, particularly among older generations, that it cools the body and restores men’s sexual potency. There are no scientifically-proven benefits of eating dog meat.

While dog meat farms are the most obvious source that fuels the dog meat trade, animal 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 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.

Whether dogs are raised on dog meat farms, in private homes, or taken from shelters, they suffer horrendously. They lack food, water, and veterinary care, and fight for their lives when they are violently slaughtered.

Each dog who is saved is a reminder about how important this work is, and we will continue to rescue as many as we can and work to see the dog meat trade soon become a relic of the past.

How We Help

We save dogs directly from South Korea’s dog meat trade, and those vulnerable to being killed, and place them in loving forever homes in the U.S. and Canada.

Our partnership with Jindo Love Rescue has shut down illegal dog meat farms and rescued over 1,200 of dogs from the meat trade since 2017.

Our data shows that dog meat demand is declining in South Korea. We are currently lobbying the country to pass a nation-wide dog meat ban.

, through our dog meat campaign.

Impact

Our partnership with Jindo Love Rescue has shut down illegal dog meat farms and rescued over 1,200 of dogs from the meat trade since 2017.

Our data shows that dog meat demand is declining in South Korea. We are currently lobbying the country to pass a nation-wide dog meat ban.

Milestones

• 2022 - We rebuild and resume rescue after our center burns down
• 2021 - We shut down a Korean dog meat farm and rescue all the dogs
• 2020 - We save 41 dogs and puppies from a kill shelter
• 2019 - We rescue 28 dogs a from truck en route to a dog meat festival
• 2018 - We free 300 dogs like this one from dog meat farms

Costs

$2,000 funds the entire cost to save one dog meat survivor — from the slaughterhouse to freedom!

What You Can Do 

• Support Jindo Love Rescue and our dog meat campaign with a regular donation
• Escort a dog to their forever home if you fly between South Korea and North America
• Subscribe and get the latest news on our partnership with Jindo Love Rescue in your inbox
• Adopt one of our dog meat survivors
• Sign our urgent dog and cat meat action alerts