One of America’s most famous skiing champions has been reunited with a Korean puppy he rescued from a dog meat farm during the February Winter Olympics.

Gus Kenworthy, a freestyle skier from Colorado, announced the arrival of his new pet, Beemo, a jindo husky mix puppy, on his Instagram account on Monday. “It breaks my heart to think she was being raised for slaughter,” he wrote.

Beemo was one of over 80 dogs rescued from a dog farm near the South Korean capital, Seoul, by the Humane Society International (HSI) and flown to safety in Canada.

Rescuing dogs destined for the dinner table became a cause celebre among some Olympians and figure skating medallist Meagan Duhamel was also on hand to greet the canine delegation as it arrived in Montreal.

Ms Duhamel has adopted a dog called Moo-tae, but most of the new arrivals will first be cared for in a Montreal emergency shelter.

Mr Kenworthy said visiting the dog meat farm during the Olympics was “one of the most heart-wrenching things” he had ever done, after seeing dogs enduring “horrible, inhumane conditions.”

“Without HSI’s intervention, all of them would eventually end up being killed in really brutal ways to be eaten,” he said.

According to the charity, more than 2.5 million dogs are bred for human consumption on farms across South Korea.

A HSI campaign has so far closed down 11 of these compounds and saved more than 1,300 dogs, helping the farmers to transition to other businesses such as growing chili peppers or mushrooms.

The practice of eating dog meat is thousands of years old and has been fuelled by a belief that dog meat aids virility, although younger Koreans are generally opposed to it, and cruel abuses have increased pressure on the government to take action.

“It’s far too easy to assume that everyone eats dogs here in South Korea,” said Nara Kim, HSI’s South Korea dog meat campaign manager.

“But the truth is that’s very far from the case. Most people here don’t regularly eat dog, and in fact most young Koreans have never eaten it at all. It’s a dying industry in more ways than one, and that’s part of the reason why these dog farmers ask HSI for help.”

Mr Kenworthy’s championing of HSI’s cause has been widely well-received, although some criticised his campaign during the Olympics for imposing double standards by failing to acknowledge that many other animals are slaughtered and eaten in western countries.

“While Kenworthy acknowledges the potential imposition of western standards, reality is 9 billion chickens are killed every year vs 30 million dogs in Asian countries,” said US-based journalist, Joon Lee, on Twitter.

“The imposition of western standards puts a strong spotlight on a dying stereotype among Korean people that I think is unfair and misrepresentative of our culture.”

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