23 Dogs Rescued from Meat Farm in South Korea arriving in VA

Sweet72947 · Jan 6, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...4cb-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html?hpid=z4

They are arriving today and tomorrow at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, which will only keep them for three days, and then they will be sent out to a few different rescues/shelters in the area. I mean yay, save dogs, but I haven't found any mention of whether proper quarantine procedures will be followed. It is extremely unlikely they were ever vaccinated at the meat farm. Don't these organizations worry they might be bringing over a group of dogs infected with rabies, or distemper, or other diseases? I just hope the shelters receiving these dogs take this seriously.

Fran101 · Jan 6, 2015

I'm sure the international shipping laws for flying them into the states took care of much of the quarantine issues.

Good for them, and I hope the dogs find loving homes

Xandra · Jan 6, 2015

I believe quarantine tends to be pretty lax for dogs in N America. They don't have hooves or feathers so are unlikely to threaten the food supply. I'd guess they just needed a veterinary certificate and rabies vaccination to enter, maybe they'll mandate an in-house quarantine if the rabies vaccination was less than 14 days ago or something. We have distemper and all that over here in our unvaccinated animals anyways so it's not really a threat. I imagine there aren't a whole lot of foreign dog diseases with epidemic potential--I don't know of any anyways.

Nice that they got the guy to farm crops instead. I mean, I guess there's nothing wrong with farming dogs but if everyone's happy this way then all the better.

release the hounds · Jan 6, 2015

so they eat dogs over there. Has anyone seen how we keep pigs, cattle, chickens and our share of dogs over here? I guess everyone has their cause, i just wonder why this is it, and not so many of the animal welfare problems we have right here at home?

Ozfozz · Jan 6, 2015

release the hounds said:

I wonder this as well.
Even when it's as simple as "we're bringing some shelter/stray dogs from x country to here!"
I get that it's great to save them, but there's so many in our own backyard that need the help as well and I feel that sort of takes away from it?

Sweet72947 · Jan 6, 2015

I'm thinking more of zoonotic diseases. If any of those dogs already has something, suddenly vaccinating them isn't going to make it go away.

People not doing things properly is a concern.
http://www.kitsapcountyhealth.com/Alert - Dog Imports - 06 23 2014.pdf

It does also annoy me that with cases like this, people are suddenly all I want one! Where were they when the dogs in their own backyard were dying in shelters? They suddenly want one because it has a sexy story?

sassafras · Jan 6, 2015

The CDC recently released some guidelines about rescue groups importing dogs, IIRC specifically in response to some dogs coming in with rabies. I don't remember all the details or how legally binding they are at the moment but it should be easy to Google.

In MN we are getting a lot of dogs imported from the southern US, and we are seeing huge spikes in cases of intestinal parasites since it's become common practice, in the past our winters have protected us and we have a really naive population. I shudder to think what kind of parasites are going to travel around the world if this becomes common practice.

Not that I don't have sympathy. I mean, this isn't going to make a dent in the dogs-as-food industry anywhere, but for these 23 dogs obviously it is a good thing. I just don't think, while they're getting their warm fuzzies, that people really think about the possible fallout re: diseases that have been raised in this thread. And also agree that it's not like we don't have enough dogs needing help right here at home.

Fran101 · Jan 6, 2015

I have no problem with bringing dogs in from other countries/places to adopt them out.

They need homes too...I don't think they "take away" from dogs in shelter here any more than breeder dogs or anything else (especially in places where the shelter is "full" of types of dogs nobody want).
Not to mention the conditions these dogs are kept in.

Then again... all the points people bring up against importing homeless dogs internationally are the same as people who adopt children from other countries.
So I tend to prickle lol

sillysally · Jan 6, 2015

But see, you could play the "but why don't you help the dogs here" game all day long. Why help foreign dogs when we can help domestic dogs? Why help rare breeds in need of rescue when there are more of the popular breeds in need of help? Hell, why help animals at all? There are plenty of humans in need, why not help out own species first? But there are so many children in need, why help adults in need when you can help children? And do you help domestic children or foreign children? You could go on and on and on.

I do have concerns about the health issues that are brought up, but with all the abuses and misery in this world I'm certainly not going to get all hot and bothered about 23 dogs being imported to the US and being found homes. Those dogs have just won the lottery--I'm going to be happy for them and hope they find good homes.

Ozfozz · Jan 6, 2015

sillysally said:

^^ Big picture. Yes.
Sometimes it's so easy to get focused on the small scale.
End of the day, dogs are saved.
I really do need to stop focusing on the negatives.

I wonder how they will integrate into households? I don't know much about the dog-meat farming industry, but were they scooped off the streets or bred into the facility? And if they were bred there, how many generations has this been going on?

crazedACD · Jan 6, 2015

It doesn't bother me too much because of this... they worked to shut down the operation. I would not agree with going in and buying meat dogs from an operating business, just as I don't agree with purchasing puppy mill dogs at market price.

Ozfozz said:

Agreed, I've been told meat dogs don't act like dogs. They aren't even scared or upset, they just are totally indifferent to people. Although I'd be interested in seeing what are they like and if anyone can rehab them to act like dogs. I'm unsure if they will even really want to be regular dogs. But I guess that is the rescue's call if that is something they want to take on.

ETA, I hope they take the best interest of the dogs to heart.

Sweet72947 · Jan 6, 2015

I'm not trying to imply that dogs oversees shouldn't be saved. I mean I just get annoyed that people only seem to want to adopt dogs with a cool story. A dog who ended up in the shelter because their family just didn't want to keep them? Boring. A dog saved from a horrible fate at a meat farm? I WANT!

Likely these dogs will respond very similarly to dogs from hoarding cases or puppy mills. They will have no concept of housebreaking or anything normally found in a home, they will have no concept of what it means to live with a family, to be given affection, what training is, what ANYTHING is. Everything will be new and probably scary to them. It will be useful to place them in households who already have other dogs, because dogs are very good at teaching each other how to behave. I hope that the humans involved in this rescue place these dogs with people who know how to handle them, and not with anyone who thinks they should use aversive techniques, because that would be extremely detrimental to the dogs' healing and learning process.

crazedACD · Jan 6, 2015

Found video...looks like they took mostly puppies, and they appear to be pretty normal and moderately social dogs. Shrug.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...uth-korea-dog-meat-farm-rescue-video-culture/

Fran101 · Jan 6, 2015

Perhaps meat dogs have to be kept semi-socialized so they can be kept safely/transported to sell/farm? or just handle?

I know in Haiti farm animals are kept very tame and social for those reasons even if their conditions are less than ideal

Laurelin · Jan 6, 2015

sillysally said:

Yep that.

People purchase certain dogs and breeds because they appeal to them so why not choose rescues based on what appeals to them (which could be a dog with an interesting story)

thehoundgirl · Jan 6, 2015

While it's good they were saved... I disagree that it doesn't take away from the dogs that need homes already. At the shelter we had a big hoarding bust and we had to shut down the shelter for 2 weeks until the dogs were moved elsewhere. It did take away from the dogs that already needed homes since we had to shut down the shelter. Not that these dogs don't deserve homes; they do but I'm just speaking from experience.

CrystalGSD · Jan 6, 2015

I watched the video and most of them seem friendly, so that's good. I'm glad they got saved.

Xandra · Jan 6, 2015

My concern here would be more about efficient use of resources. Spending thousands of dollars to import a bunch of hard-luck dogs to a country already overwhelmed with hard-luck dogs seems kind of pointless. It's still nice and more than I'm doing lol so I'm not too worked up about it.

k9krazee · Jan 6, 2015

Aww!! I want the little scruffy one and I will name him Porkchop.

Sweet72947 · Jan 7, 2015

Well, you can say that Norris was "socialized" (with humans) and "tame", but he lived in a shelter for four years and EVERYTHING about living in a home was new and scary to him. A cardboard box in the living room was enough to send him scurrying off to my bedroom. He was TERRIFIED of my curtains when my mom and I put them up on my sliding glass door, and it was a week before he got used to the curtains just sitting there. It took a while before I could move the curtains without him running away. Now he doesn't care because he's used to them. Norris pulled me into a trash can a few weeks ago because I brushed by one and it made a sound and he freaked; then of course the trash can fell over and made a bigger sound and now he's afraid of trash cans, and I have to desensitize him to them all over again. I call Norris my agoraphobic dog because the only place he seems to feel completely safe is my room. Don't get me wrong, he loves to go for walks, and he loves to go to the dog park, or out to the human park on 15. But I always have to be aware that something might scare him, and I have to be prepared to deal with that. Norris is not a naturally anxious dog, it's just that society is completely bizzare to him.

These dogs might need similar behavioral guidance, although if most of them are young puppies, it shouldn't be hard to integrate them into homes.

23 Dogs Rescued from Meat Farm in South Korea arriving in VA

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