Korean canines taken off menu
They were doggies destined for dinner plates.
Now, 17 canines rescued from a Korean dog meat farm by Humane Society International, with financial help from reality show judge Simon Cowell, are up for adoption in St. Catharines.
Lincoln County Humane Society executive director Kevin Strooband said the dogs are healthy but will require time to get used to being petted.
“They’re skittish because they haven’t had a lot of interactions with humans,” he said Wednesday, adding volunteer dog walkers are helping to socialize them. “They haven’t had a lot of interaction with grass. They sat in a cage for their lives.
“Luckily these made it out in time, because there are others that didn’t.”
Humane Society International has been working to end the dog meat trade throughout Asia and has shut down 13 dog meat farms in South Korea.
The agency reports on its website that dogs suffer on the farms in cages and the methods used to slaughter them is brutal. Death by electrocution is most common, though hanging is also practised, with dogs taking up to five minutes to die in full view of other dogs.
The agency says it works with dog meat farmers to help them transition into other trades such as growing mushrooms, parsley or chiles.
The latest dog farm closure in October in Namyangju, South Korea, involved the rescue of more than 200 dogs that were sent to emergency shelters in Canada, the United Kingdom, United States and the Netherlands.
The effort was made possible in part by Cowell, the former “American Idol” judge, who supported Humane Society International’s efforts to close down the farm by donating
$42,000.
The dogs, which are various mixed breeds, went through a quarantine and rest period. Strooband and local humane society staff picked up 17 of the dogs from a Sharp Transportation temporary shelter in Cambridge on Oct. 11.
“I went to pet one and he just slinked right down to ground to move away from my hand,” Strooband said of his first encounter with one of the dogs.
“It’s not an aggression thing, it’s the unknown. ‘Why are you touching me?’ They’ll get used to it.”
On Wednesday, Strooband announced the dogs at the Fourth Avenue shelter are ready for adoption.
Strooband said the Lincoln County Humane Society takes in dogs in need from outside of Niagara because there is always a demand for adoptions. The shelter adopted out 178 dogs in the past year. It has a 99 per cent live release rate, with euthanasia only for extreme health or temperament reasons.