In rural Yesan, South Korea, a dog meat farmer asked the Humane Society International to help him close down his dog meat farm in order to go into crop farming instead. While taking care of the pups, the HSI decided to aid him with figuring out a business plan.

The HSI was able to save 149 dogs from the metal cages. The dogs were found to be suffering from various diseases. The dogs were also not given enough food. Many of these dogs had been traumatized by the conditions they had to experience on the meat farm.

Now, the dogs will be flown to various animals shelters in the U.S. to find permanent homes. Some of the animal shelters are in Wisconsin, Indiana, and New York. However, fifteen newborn puppies will be left behind with their mothers in a foster home until they are old enough to make the flight to the U.S.

The original purpose of these dogs was to be used as an ingredient in a traditional spicy soup called “bosintang soup” for the country’s annual Bok Nal “dog eating days” festival. A few elders in several Korean communities mistakenly believe that dog meat soup will energize the blood in the exhausting heat. Others, like the young people of South Korea, do not wish to keep this belief and the activity of the sales of dog meat as part of Korean culture.

However, this practice still continues, especially around the time of Bok Nal. According to KoreanDogs.org, five million puppies are bred for human consumption. These puppies are injected antibiotics ten times the normal rate, and a dozen dogs are stuffed into cages during transporting. Other statistics from KoreanDogs.org are that a dog is butchered every twelve seconds, and twenty percent of the dogs consumed in South Korea are imported from China.

Since 2014, nine farms in Korea have been shut down with the help of the HSI, and resistance against the practice is rising.