Ball, Rescued from Being Eaten

For some time, pedigree dog breeds have been very popular and in high demand in South Korea. Whenever the media features dogs of certain breeds with their happy owners, that particular breed soon becomes trendy.

However, one must remember that these cute dogs require care and attention, just like human babies. They need feeding, exercising, grooming and sometimes expensive vet visits. They can sometimes smell bad, become ill, bark loudly or often, or cause other types of ‘trouble’ for their owners.

Ball, a Golden Retriever, was one of these trendy dogs.

Ball was a dog living—or being neglected to be more exact—at a hardware store. Being a large working breed and consequently very active in nature, Ball was thought to be too much hard work, and was about to be sold to a dogmeat farm.

We rescued him in November 2018, and brought him to our shelter.

Ball was diagnosed with third stage Heartworms. Heartworms are often found in dogs living in bad environments. To treat it takes a lot of time and money. As the illness progresses, a complete cure becomes less certain.

Thankfully, Ball was given the chance of a new life. He recovered from Heartworms, and was adopted in August 2018 by a family in Toronto, Canada.

Every time a dog gets on a plane to go to his or her new home, we are always so glad that the time and effort had all been worth it. However, it’s a sad reality that for the majority of large dogs in South Korea, the relatively small chance of adoption by families abroad is their only hope.