45 Illegal Korean Puppymill Rescue Dogs
Yesterday morning, our crew disguised as a buyer for one of the dogs and collected evidence of cash exchange for a shiba inu puppy. We also accrued evidence for tax evasion with his past sales. There were myriad of illegal activities on the puppy mill: animal protection, livestock waste, construction, water preservation and tax laws were being broken.
We prepared a document enlisting all the illegal activities he can be charged with in hopes of using them as a leverage for the negotiation of the dogs. But all of us worried that the breeder will not give up dogs easily as this has been a lucrative business for him for too many years. Out of all the rescues we’d done, we did the most research and got so much help from other volunteers as well. However, we were still scared and hopeless that he wouldn’t give up any dogs.
In the PM, we went to the puppy mill with YTN media press and Chuncheon city’s animal protection team. Once the famer showed up, he kicked everyone off the property and only allowed the city officials to enter. The city charged him with illegal breeding and after talking with the city, he agreed to talk to only one person from WEACT.
We were able to successfully negotiate getting the ownership of all dogs on the property except for five and take down the entire facility. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing and started getting ready to rescue before he changed his mind. *UPDATE: 12/15/2020 BREAKING NEWS! WEACT has secured the remaining 5 dogs + 1 husky that was hidden by the breeder. Every single dog on the puppymill farm has been rescued! No dogs left behind!!
Because we hadn’t expected getting even a single dog to be rescued, we only had five crates and not enough cars. But we had so many wonderful volunteers on the site and everyone in our rescue chatroom was also on standby. As soon as we secured the release of the dogs, we started making calls to vets and miraculously acquired 39 spots at vets. People started driving around, collecting boxes and tapes so we could make temporary crates. We still didn’t have enough cars so we started reaching out for help on Instagram.
As soon as help request got out, people from 90-100miles away got in their cars and came to the site to save these dogs. By 6:30pm, we were able to get all the babies out and eventually checked in at vets. Our partner vets who had already gone home came back to open their doors for our transports. It was a day of blessing and miracle.
We got to see the phrase “It takes a village to rescue” coming to life with our own eyes, live-time. We are beyond grateful for everyone who came to fight for the dogs, for those who coordinated logistics and helped with research behind-the-scene and supporters.
Thank you so much for saving these babies. You guys saved them. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for ACTING WITH US.
And yes, while we are rejoiced at the fact that the dogs are out of the hell but the real work begins now. They now have to get vetted and acclimated so they can get adopted.
Please help these dogs’ journeys by donating so we can afford their vet costs, boarding fees, and eventually their freedom flight costs. Every dollar goes directly towards the dogs. WEACT is a nonprofit, 100% volunteer run rescue based in South Korea.