78% of Dog Breeding Farms Closed Down Their Business as of 21 December 2025

Sejong, 2 January 2026 — Until 21 December 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) received business closure notifications from dog breeding farms through local governments. As a result, 125 dog breeding farms closed down their business with a reduction of 47,544 dogs over the period from 7 August 2025 to 21 December 2025 (period 3). 

The Special Act on the Termination of Breeding, Slaughter, and Distribution of Dogs for Consumption took effect on 7 August 2024. From then until 21 December 2025, approximately 78% (1,204 farms) of the total 1,537 dog breeding farms closed down their business.

A sharper-than-expected increase in the number of business closures of dog breeding farms is attributable to a synergistic effect of several factors combined, such as heightened public interest in ending dog meat consumption, the government’s policy effects (e.g. incentives for dog farm owners to encourage them to close their businesses earlier), and local governments’ encouragement for earlier business closures. If this trend continues, the complete termination of dog meat production is expected to be achieved until February 2027. 

Importantly, according to the report on dog breeding farm closures, the dog breeding farms—scheduled to be phased out from 2026 to 2027—closed down their business earlier. Among 636 dog breeding farms with an initial plan to phase out their business after the year 2025, 337 dog breeding farms (53%) closed their business in 2025. Also, 264 (52%) out of 507 dog breeding farms scheduled to close down their business from 22 September 2026 to 6 February 2027 (period 6) reported their business closures earlier to the local governments.

Meanwhile, the MAFRA will make sure that government support can be provided for earlier-closing farms faster through cooperation with local governments. The MAFRA will also provide loan support for the construction or renovation of livestock facilities and offer business transition consulting to farmers who wish to transition to other types of livestock farming. Furthermore, the MAFRA will prevent dog breeding farms from resuming breeding dogs and minimize the occurrence of dogs remaining for consumption. To this end, the MAFRA will continue to crack down on activities such as bringing new dogs for human consumption into a farm and breeding such dogs. The MAFRA will also strengthen its compliance check to ensure that dog breeding farms can strictly comply with their business closure implementation plan.