On 9 February 2016, the World Dog Alliance(WDA) launched a parliamentary petition through the UK’s largest public relations company. On 7 April, the petition received 10,000 signatures, reaching the threshold for the government to respond. On 1 August, 100,000 signatures were collected from the UK citizens, reaching the threshold for a parliamentary debate. A parliamentary petition is only valid for six months, the WDA met the threshold in only five months! In the same period there were over 400 petitions, only five of which collected 100,000 signatures by the deadline. According to other statistics, the WDA’s petition was circulated to 4 million people in the UK and retweeted by over 100,000 times.

On 8 August, 102,131 British citizens had signed up to support the petition. In response to the outcry, the UK Parliament held a debate on 12 September and passed a motion supporting the British government to put pressure on the South Korean authorities. In the end, the South Korean government closed the Mudan Dog Meat Market, the largest dog meat market in the country. At the debate, Paul Monaghan, former MP of the Scottish National Party, spoke out in favour of a motion to close the market. He stressed, ‘the World Dog Alliance has provided us with important information about the cruelty of dog meat consumption in Asia. This alone shows the influence of the UK on animal protection.’