Olympics

Olympic gold medalist, skater Meagan Duhamel, uses platform to spotlight dog meat trade

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Canadian figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Meagan Duhamel is using her platform at the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang to draw attention to South Korea's notorious dog meat farms.

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Duhamel, who along with her partner, Eric Radford, won gold in the Pyeongchang team figure skating event, already adopted a dog from South Korea last year and brought back a second one for adoption in Canada. She plans on rescuing another dog from a meat farm before she leaves South Korea this year.

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Last year the two-time world champion pairs skater brought home a black and brown miniature dachshund mix with big golden eyes, big ears and bowed legs named Moo-tae. Duhamel helped rescue the little dog from a dog meat farm. The 2-year-old Moo-tae now lives with the champion skater and her husband, coach Bruno Marcotte, in Montreal.

“Most of the time, he just wants to sit in everybody’s arms,” she told The Associated Press. “He doesn’t even care to play, he just walks up to everybody and wants to be held.”

Dog farms date back thousands of years in Asia, although fewer Koreans are eating dog meat these days. Still, some 2 million dogs are raised on South Korean dog meat farms every year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.