BONKers! Canadian walks 38 dogs to promote adoption

Have you hired a professional walker for your dog because you do not have the time to take the pooch out on your own? How many dogs does your walker walk at one time? One? Two? Three? Five? Canadian dog lover Mitchell Rudy aka The Dog set a new Guinness world record for most dogs walked simultaneously by an individual last month when he took 38—yes, that’s right, THIRTY-EIGHT—rescued dogs for a walk of over 1 km, or about 1,100 yards, in South Korea. The dogs had to remain on their leads throughout the attempt for the record to be validated. Click here to watch the feat.

Rudy’s feat, on September 5 at Jungwon University in Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, for the Canadian charitable initiative BONK and the host country’s Korean K9 Rescue, or KK9R, broke the previous record of 36 dogs walked simultaneously by an individual, which had stood for six years.

According to BONK, Rudy performed the feat to raise awareness about the adoption of rescued dogs and spread the message of animal protection. All the dogs that were part of the event were put up for adoption and, according to the Canadian initiative, some have already found their forever homes.

Rudy, who is himself among the core contributors of BONK, said he was ecstatic to get to play with so many dogs, according to a report on the Guinness World Records site. “All of these dogs, some of them are from the puppy mill industry, some of them are from former meat harvesting areas,” he said. “These are dogs that have been rescued by KK9R but also other agencies inside of Korea. There is a lot of stigma around rescues. They are great animals, they deserve a good home, they just need a little bit of love.”

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In January, South Korea’s parliament passed a law that will make the slaughter and sale of dogs for meat in the country illegal, BBC reported. The legislation, which aims to end the centuries-old practice of humans eating dog meat, is set to come into force by 2027, though the law itself does not outlaw the consumption of dog meat.

Dog meat stew, or boshintang, is considered a delicacy among some older South Koreans, but the meat has fallen out of favour with diners and is no longer popular with the young, BBC reported, citing a Gallup poll in 2023, which found that only 8% of people said they had tried dog meat in the past 12 months, down from 27% in 2015. Fewer than a fifth of those polled said they supported the consumption of the meat.