'Heartbroken' Kenworthy Visits South Korean Dog Meat Farm - NBC10 Boston
The 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang

The 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang

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'Heartbroken' Kenworthy Visits South Korean Dog Meat Farm

"It's one of the saddest places I've ever been," Kenworthy said

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    'Heartbroken' Kenworthy Visits South Korean Dog Meat Farm
    AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
    In this Feb. 23, 2018, photo, American freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy, left, and his boyfriend Matthew Wilkas hold dogs at a dog meat farm in Siheung, South Korea. Kenworthy saved five stray dogs during the Sochi Olympics four years ago and is considering adopting one of the many puppies he met Friday after finishing competition the Pyeongchang Games.


    "It's one of the saddest places I've ever been," Kenworthy said.


    Kenworthy slowly explored the property in a haze, and Wilkas spent much of the visit nervously chewing on his lip. Neither wants to dictate to Koreans what they should and shouldn't eat, but they believe strongly that even animals raised for slaughter deserve higher quality of life.

    "I'm honestly feeling heartbroken," Kenworthy said.


    Nara Kim, HSI's South Korea dog meat campaigner, has seen worse. The Siheung farmer told HSI he never intended to sell dogs for slaughter but had no choice when his collection of pet Jindo dogs kept producing puppies. He eagerly accepted HSI's proposal to buy out his farm, and he plans to put those funds into farming mushrooms and other plants.

    HSI's ultimate goal is to pressure the South Korean government into shuttering the industry itself. In the meantime, it's trying to set an example for how Koreans might do it — by providing resources to farmers who want out.


    There were 87 dogs on the Siheung farm as of Friday morning, though new litters of puppies were expected soon. The dogs will be vaccinated and quarantined on the farm until mid-March. They'll likely all be flown to North America, where adoption demand is higher than in Korea.

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    Shelters around Seoul are already overcrowded, Kim said, in part because of the Korean belief that "meat dogs" and "pet dogs" are inherently different.

    At least 2 million dogs are slaughtered and eaten each year in Korea. The practice is thousands of years old, though dog meat has waned in popularity and most in the country don't do it regularly. While many older Koreans believe dog meat aids virility, younger citizens generally are either against the practice or indifferent to it.



    Local organizing committee spokesman Sung Baik-you was asked during the Games about the committee's stance on the sale of dog meat.

    "We have not been able to find any places that sells dog meat," in the Olympics zone, Sung said. "That's probably a remnant of what's happened in Korea in the past. Recently in Korea, many families have dogs as pets."


    Kenworthy knew little about the dog meat trade before HSI asked him last year to star in a public-service announcement with other Olympians. After learning more, he was eager to lend his celebrity to the cause. HSI filmed Friday's visit for use in a second PSA.

    "It's dogs that are worthy of companionship, worthy of being a pet," Kenworthy said. "All they want is affection and attention, and they're stuck in tiny metal cages in the snow with nothing to eat."

    Though he didn't medal, Kenworthy has been among Pyeongchang's biggest names, in part because of his social media work voicing LGBT pride.



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    "I don't think it's fair to come and say, 'The way that we do something is the right way,'" he said. "But also, I don't think that cruelty is culture."

    Kenworthy wants to adopt one of the Siheung puppies, but his family is objecting because he and Wilkas — an actor best known for starring in the film "Gayby" — both spend so much time on the road. They have time to decide, with the pups still locked in quarantine.

    "If it doesn't end up with me," he said, "I'd like to just make sure I know that it has a home where it's loved and warm and fed and taken care of."




    More AP Olympics: https://wintergames.ap.org