Gus Kenworthy competed in the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Although he didn’t win a medal, he will be heading back to the United States with a new a member of his family.
The skier previously told Us Weekly that he was planning to visit a dog farm with the Humane Society International. He had a feeling that he’d end up taking one of the dogs home.
“It’s pretty likely I’ll bring one back with me,” he told the outlet earlier in the week.
Kenworthy and his boyfriend, Matt Wilkas, did indeed go to a dog farm in South Korea — and they adopted a puppy. Kenworthy took to Instagram on February 23 to share their new family member — Beemo — with the world.
South Korea is one of the few nations in the world where dogs are bred for their meat. Many dogs are raised on dog farms, sold, killed, cooked, and consumed. According to About.com, there are some people in South Korea who eat dog meat regularly, while others are strongly against the idea.
You can check out Kenworthy’s caption below.
“This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visit to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea. Across the country there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable. Yes, there is an argument to be made that eating dogs is a part of Korean culture. And, while don’t personally agree with it, I do agree that it’s not my place to impose western ideals on the people here. The way these animals are being treated, however, is completely inhumane and culture should never be a scapegoat for cruelty. I was told that the dogs on this particular farm were kept in “good conditions” by comparison to other farms. The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions. When it comes time to put one down it is done so in front of the other dogs by means of electrocution sometimes taking up to 20 agonizing minutes. Despite the beliefs of the Korean public at large, these dogs are no different from the ones we call pets back home. Some of them were even pets at one time and were stolen or found and sold into the dog meat trade. Luckily, this particular farm (thanks to the hard work of the Humane Society International and the cooperation of a farmer who’s seen the error of his ways) is being permanently shut down and all 90 of the dogs here will be brought to the US and Canada where they’ll find their fur-ever homes. I adopted the sweet baby in the first pic (we named her Beemo) and she’ll be coming to the US to live with me as soon as she’s through with her vaccinations in a short couple of weeks. I cannot wait to give her the best life possible! There are still millions of dogs here in need of help though…I’m hoping to use this visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trade here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the US where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes!”
Adopting dogs during the Olympic Games has become sort of a thing for Kenworthy. In 2014, he ended up adopting two strays that he came across while in Sochi, Russia.
“New Olympics. Same me,” he wrote in another Instagram post.
“My two dogs are Jake and Mishka. They’re total mutts, and both boys. We don’t know exactly how old they are, but they’re about 11 months old. They’re mostly German Shepherd, and part Siberian husky, bloodhound, Doberman…They’ve just got a little bit of everything in them. They’re awesome dogs,” he told Today after the Games.