Was I going to burst into tears once I stepped onto the farm? Would I dissociate and feel nothing? These were the thoughts I had leading up to my first dog meat farm rescue. I had seen footage from the farm in South Korea, but I wondered how it would feel to actually be there and hear the dogs crying for help, smell the feces piled up under their cages and see the trauma in their eyes.
On May 4, I took a 15-hour flight to South Korea where I joined my colleagues from Humane World for Animals to rescue dogs from a dog meat farm. Cheongju authorities were shutting down this farm for operating illegally. As a video producer for Humane World, my job for this rescue was to film and document the process.
The rescue took place over two days. On the first day, we went to the farm to feed the dogs, give them water, check for microchips that the team previously inserted (which they needed to have to fly to the U.S.), build crates and walk through the rescue plan for removing the dogs. As soon as I stepped on the farm, I felt overwhelmed. My eyes welled up as I watched the dogs in their cages, but then I felt a sense of relief. We were here now. These dogs would be safe. In just one more day they would be free. And I felt even more relief knowing that in 2027 a ban on the dog meat industry in South Korea would come into effect—making it illegal to breed, kill and butcher dogs for human consumption.