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USA freeskier Gus Kenworthy adopts a puppy, rescues 90 at 2018 Winter Olympics

This is the second time the skier left the Olympics with a new furry friend.
US Gus Kenworthy reacts as he competes in a run of the men's ski slopestyle final event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Phoenix Park in Pyeongchang on February 18, 2018. (MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images)

Gus Kenworthy is adopting a puppy again.

For the second consecutive Olympics, the American freeskier is going home with a pet. After touring a dog farm in South Korea on Friday, Kenworthy posted a photo with the puppy — a girl named Beemo — and a lengthy note.

Beemo was only one of the dogs at the farm. Kenworthy said with the help of Humane Society International, they are working with the farmer to get the operation shut down, and then moving on to finding homes for all the 90 dogs rescued.

“I cannot wait to give her the best life possible!” he said.

Kenworthy, 26, first drew global attention for adopting a family of stray dogs after the Sochi Olympics four years ago.

His boyfriend at the time, Robin Macdonald, stayed in Russia for an extra month to take them home. Mamuchka, the mother of the litter, lives in Colorado with Kenworthy’s mother, Pip.

The two surviving pups, Jake and Mishka, live in Vancouver with Macdonald.

In 2014, Kenworthy was named Inspirational Honoree by The Humane Society of the United States.

Working with Humane Society International, Kenworthy and his boyfriend, Matt Wilkas, toured a dog meat farm outside of Seoul.

In the Associated Press story from the visit and in Kenworthy’s Twitter post, he said it’s not his place to impose Western ideals on the traditional Korean practice of eating dog meat but said they should be treated more humanely.

“The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions. When it comes time to put one down it is done so in front of the other dogs by means of electrocution sometimes taking up to 20 agonizing minutes” Kenworthy wrote. “Despite the beliefs of the Korean public at large, these dogs are no different from the ones we call pets back home. Some of them were even pets at one time and were stolen or found and sold into the dog meat trade.”

Since Sochi, Kenworthy came out publicly as gay in late 2015. He was one of the most marketed athletes coming into these Games. After breaking his thumb and suffering a hematoma on his hip in practice, he advanced to the slopestyle final here but finished 12th.

According to the Associated Press, Humane Society International bought out the farm Kenworthy visited. It’s the 11th the organization has helped close out of an estimated 17,000 here.

Kenworthy said Beemo would come to the United States as soon as she has her vaccinations.

“There are still millions of dogs here in need of help though,” Kenworthy wrote. “I’m hoping to use today’s visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trad here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the US where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes!”

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