Gus Kenworthy said after the 2014 Sochi Games that he wasn't done rescuing dogs. The Team USA freestyle skier, who won silver four years ago and represented the U.S. in slopestyle this month in Pyeongchang, South Korea, delivered on that promise this week.
The 26-year-old athlete, who made headlines for saving five stray dogs in Russia during the last Winter Olympics, toured a local dog meat farm on Friday, as CBS News reported, and he left the facility with a puppy of his own.
Careful not to criticize Korea for its culture's long practice of consuming cat and dog meat, Kenworthy shared on Instagram that he is most bothered by the farms that lack upkeep. And that, according to his post on Friday, is what prompted him to adopt a dog from the site he visited -- one that apparently drew the ire of Humane Society International for leaving its animals "malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens and exposed to the freezing winter elements."
Controversy over the dog meat trade in South Korea is nothing new.
Thousands signed petitions to boycott the 2018 Winter Games months before the Pyeongchang competition in hopes of prompting a complete ban on cat and dog meat sales. And even after the nation imposed restrictions on local markets so as not to rub Olympic guests the wrong way, online petitions drew as many as a million signatures in calling for the International Olympic Committee to address South Korea's stance -- one that hasn't changed much since the consumption of cats and dogs became commonplace as early as the 1300s.