As South Korea prepares to implement a nationwide ban on the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for meat next year, a troubling question has emerged: What happened to the millions of dogs that once supplied the country’s dog meat industry?According to government estimates, 400,000 to 450,000 dogs were being raised for meat in 2024. Today, that number has fallen to about 20,000 as farms closed ahead of the ban, which will take effect in February 2027. But officials have no records indicating where most of the animals went.“Our role is to verify that the dogs are no longer present on farms or slaughter facilities before giving compensation,” an inspector at the South Korean agriculture ministry told AFP on condition of anonymity.“We are not involved in what was done to the dogs,” he said.The country’s landmark law, passed in January 2024, prohibits the breeding, slaughter and sale of dogs for human consumption. Violators face a prison sentence of up to three years.To encourage farmers to exit the industry, the government offered compensation of up to 600,000 won (about $390) for each dog removed from farms.However, official data obtained by a legislator showed that only 623 dogs had been adopted as of February and less than 500 had been transferred to shelters, leaving the fate of hundreds of thousands of animals unclear.Animal welfare groups believe that many dogs were slaughtered before the law was implemented.Kim Young-hwan, a representative of the animal rights group CARE, said, “If a large number of rescued dogs had been included in adoption programs, animal groups like ours would have known about them.”“We have not seen any adoption drives for dogs rescued from dog farms,” he told AFP.CARE says it has rescued and re-homed about 2,500 dogs from farms over the past two decades, most of which have been sent overseas because South Koreans generally prefer small pet breeds suitable for apartment living.Dogs bred for meat are usually large breeds such as the Nurengi, or Korean Yellow Spitz.Former dog farmer Ju Yeong-bong acknowledged what may have happened to many of the missing animals.“In South Korea, there has long been a distinction between dogs raised for food and those kept as pets,” Joo told AFP.Asked about the fate of thousands of unaccounted for dogs, he said they were likely “already eaten.”This possibility is “infuriating,” said CARE’s Kim, adding that animal welfare organizations lack the capacity to rescue such large numbers of dogs.According to the Agriculture Ministry, 1,265 dog farms, or about 82% of the country’s total, had applied for closure as of May.Xu, who also works as a Christian pastor, said he entered the dog breeding business in 1994 after struggling to make a living through his ministry.“I think the dog meat ban is a betrayal,” he told AFP.“It was imposed for political reasons, without meaningful dialogue or adequate measures to protect our livelihoods.”Many former dog breeders are attempting to transition into other livestock occupations, he said, but government licensing processes have slowed that transition.Animal rights advocates argue that the ban closes a long-standing legal loophole over the treatment of dogs raised for meat.Unlike cattle or pigs, dogs in South Korea were never officially classified as livestock, allowing the industry to operate for decades without regulations governing breeding or slaughter practices.Animal rights groups allege that the dogs are commonly electrocuted, hanged or beaten to death.At an abandoned slaughterhouse in Pyeongtaek, AFP journalists found rusted cages allegedly containing equipment used to electrocute animals, as well as dog skulls.“They were often conscious when their internal organs were burned,” Shin Ju-woon, a campaigner for the animal welfare group Kara, told AFP.“The other dogs will witness this process.”Kara said she rescued 29 dogs from the Pyeongtaek facility last month and has filed an animal cruelty complaint against the farm owner.