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Simon Cowell Donates £25,000 To An Anti-Dog Meat Charity

Simon Cowell Donates £25,000 To An Anti-Dog Meat Charity

See, he's not nasty after all. Unless you're rubbish at singing that is...

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Hey, so it turns out that Simon Cowell isn't as mean as he tries to seem on the telly - he's just donated £25,000 to an animal protection charity so that he can play his part in closing down a dog meat farm in South Korea.

See, behind that mean, callous exterior beats the heart of a warm, fuzzy, dog lover. He hides it pretty well, to be fair.

Or maybe not...

PA

The X Factor boss made the generous contribution to the Humane Society International (HSI) and his donation will mean that more than 200 dogs and puppies will now be safe from being killed and harvested for food.

The charity posted their thanks on Twitter with a heartfelt message that read: "Amazing news.

"Simon Cowell has generously donated £25,000 to our rescue appeal to help us close our 13th #dogmeat farm in #SouthKorea & save 200+ dogs! We are so grateful to Simon and Syco it means the world to us!"

Cowell's love of dogs is well documented, in reality. He owns three Yorkshire Terriers and has spoken out on several occasions about his disgust at the dog meat industry.

He has publicly backed their #EndDogMeat campaign and even appeared on daytime telly's Good Morning Britain to argue that eating a dog is "like eating your friend".

Back in 2016 he also publicly opposed a dog eating festival in Yulin, China.

He called the festival "sickeningly cruel". It's hard to disagree with that logic.

PA

There are about 83 charities working together at the minute to try to curb the eating of dogs and cats, largely in Asia.

Change for Animals Foundation, the Jane Goodall Institute, Four Paws, and Animals Asia, are just a few of the organisations that are aiming to stop "the threat of rabies posed by the brutal and often illegal dog and cat meat trade".

It's working, too. There has been a sharp decline in the eating of dogs in South Korea recently, but the farms and factories still exist. Around 2.5m dogs are bred each year exclusively for the dinner table.

Ending that is the next step for these charities.

In these farms, the dogs are often kept in inhumane conditions in small metal cages and are sometimes killed in horrible ways such as hanging and electrocution.

The Humane Society International not only saves the dogs, but also tries to help farmers to switch to another way of farming. So far they've shut down 12 farms, saving a total of around 1,400 dogs.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, South Korea, Charity, Asia, UK Entertainment, Simon Cowell, UK, Animals, x factor, Dogs, China