Seoul Dog Names

It's impossible to talk about Seoul, South Korea without talking about animal cruelty and culture. While it's completely unfair to push anyone's beliefs and change on an entire culture, it has been a strong subject of controversy since the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. In Korea, there is a belief that pet dogs and meat dogs are different. Although it is acceptable for families to have dogs as pets, happily and safely, it's also normal for people to eat things like dog meat stew. This practice is thousands of years old, but it took the Winter Olympics for the subject to really cause a stir in America, where the act of eating a dog is cruelty. 

To help stop this, some Olympians have been working with activists and organizations. All the while competing for gold! Some have even offered money to restaurants so long as they remove dog meat from their menus. But perhaps the most thoughtful thing that these Olympians have been doing is actually adopting dogs in danger of being eaten. For instance, Canadian pairs skater Meagan Duhamel adopted a rescued dog last year, and plans to fly more rescued dogs to Canada after the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

The dog she rescued last year is 2-year-old Moo-tae. He's been living with the skater and her husband/coach Bruno Marcotte in Montreal, making friends at his local dog park, and wearing sweaters to stay warm. The dog was originally supposed to be raised on a Korean dog meat farm, where conditions leave a lot to be desired. It's not just the certainty of death for food, but the torture and living conditions these dogs face that make it so shocking to see. 

But Moo-tae was one of the lucky few. Buddhists in the southern part of the country helped rescue him from a farm as a puppy. Then, Free Korean Dogs founder, EK Park, found him living in the monks' monastery.  

Park was born in South Korea, and was raised seeing dog meat on the menu. Even still, she chose to expose the trade and do something about it. She actively oversees adoptions that takes dogs to Canada and the United States. One of the adoptions she helped happen was Moo-tae's. It's thanks to Park, Buddhist monks and Duhamel that Moo-tae is alive today. He went from being destined to die, to sitting with monks during meditation and yoga, to living the high life in Montreal.