In between all the incredible feats of physical prowess of the Olympics are human moments that bring the larger than life athletes down to earth. The latest of these involves Gus Kentworthy, an American free skier who has been charming his way through the PyeongChang Winter Games. Kentworthy, who adopted a family of puppies during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, is at it again, adopting a puppy from a South Korean dog meat farm with his boyfriend, Matt Wilkas.
Kentworthy and Wilkas worked with Humane Society International to tour the facility outside of Seoul and shed a light on the cruelty within the industry, and while he claimed in his Instagram post that it’s “not my place to impose western ideals on the people here,” he explained that the conditions are “inhumane.”
“I was told that the dogs on this particular farm were kept in “good conditions” by comparison to other farms. The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions. When it comes time to put one down it is done so in front of the other dogs by means of electrocution sometimes taking up to 20 agonizing minutes. Despite the beliefs of the Korean public at large, these dogs are no different from the ones we call pets back home. Some of them were even pets at one time and were stolen or found and sold into the dog meat trade. Luckily, this particular farm (thanks to the hard work of the Humane Society International and the cooperation of a farmer who’s seen the error of his ways) is being permanently shut down and all 90 of the dogs here will be brought to the US and Canada where they’ll find their fur-ever homes.”
Kentworthy named the adorable pup Beemo and she will be joining him and Wilkas back in the States once her vaccinations are complete in a couple of weeks. Luckily, Beemo’s story had a happy ending, and hopefully Kentworthy’s advocacy will help find many more of these dogs find loving homes of their own.
(Via USA Today)