Forty-four dogs, together with 19 puppies simply days old, have been rescued from a canine meat fattening facility and slaughterhouse in Thai Nguyen, Viet Nam, after the proprietor had a change of coronary heart and shut his store for good. Mr Hung had purchased, bought and slaughtered as much as 20,000 dogs for the meat commerce over the previous seven years, however stated that killing the animals weighed closely on his conscience and he was relieved when animal charity Humane Society International supplied him a means out as a part of its Models for Change program. Mr Hung plans to open an agricultural retailer for local people crop farming.
HSI’s rescue workforce assembled from Viet Nam, Indonesia and India to take away the 44 dogs from Mr Hung’s facility and transport them to custom-made sheltering at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry the place they have been vaccinated in opposition to rabies and can obtain medical care and rehabilitation earlier than being made available for native adoption.
Most of the estimated 5 million dogs killed for meat yearly in Viet Nam are stolen pets or strays snatched from the streets utilizing poison bait, painful taser weapons, pincers or ropes, or imported from surrounding international locations corresponding to Cambodia. However, the vast majority of Mr Hung’s dogs have been bought to him by rural households who breed additional puppies at home to complement their principal revenue.
Traders usually go village to village by bike or truck to gather puppies from rural communities. The young dogs are tightly packed into small cages and pushed for hours to amenities corresponding to Mr Hung’s for fattening up, many enduring dehydration, suffocation, heatstroke and even dying on the journey.
Prior to the closure with HSI, merchants delivered round 50 puppies each one or two months to Mr Hung’s facility, the place they have been saved in filthy raised cages with out veterinary care and fattened up for a number of weeks or months to succeed in an acceptable slaughter weight to be bought as thịt chó (canine meat).
HSI’s analysis in different components of Viet Nam uncovered the merciless apply of force-feeding dogs at some fattening amenities by forcing a tube down their throats and pouring rice immediately into their stomachs. While Mr Hung claims by no means to have performed power feeding, he’s conscious of the apply. As nicely as promoting the dogs to native slaughterhouses and eating places, Mr Hung additionally killed one or two dogs on daily basis with a knife to the jugular or coronary heart, in full view of different dogs. It was a cycle of struggling and brutality that Mr Hung stated lastly broke his coronary heart.
Mr Hung informed HSI’s Viet Nam workforce: “I looked into their pleading eyes and saw their tails nervously wagging as I approached, and each time it got harder to do. They came to me as happy little puppies so full of life, but soon became traumatized and afraid. It just broke my heart in the end. Dogs are so loyal and friendly, selling or killing them felt like a betrayal that weighed heavily on my conscience. When I heard that HSI’s Models for Change program had helped another trader in Thai Nguyen close his dog meat slaughterhouse and restaurant last year, I was relieved to know there was a way for me to start my life over without having to kill animals for a living. I’m excited for my new business and to know that all my dogs will have the happy life they deserve with families who will look after them.”
As nicely as tackling the intense animal cruelty inherent within the commerce of dogs for human consumption, HSI’s program additionally helps crack down on the unfold of the lethal rabies virus throughout Viet Nam. Rabies kills greater than 70 folks in Viet Nam annually, in line with the World Health Organization, with most circumstances brought on by canine bites and verified cases linked to canine slaughter and consumption. A excessive incidence of rabies-positive dogs has been documented in slaughterhouses within the capital metropolis, Hanoi. Whether trafficked from neighboring international locations, caught and pushed a whole bunch of miles throughout Viet Nam or bought for slaughter by native households, the canine meat commerce includes the mass motion and slaughter of dogs of unknown illness or vaccination standing and as such jeopardizes efforts by officers to manage the unfold of the rabies.
Phuong Tham, Humane Society International’s Viet Nam nation director, stated: “The dog meat trade is a cruel and dangerous business in Viet Nam, jeopardizing the health of the nation for profit, in breach of existing laws. Mr Hung is the second trader in Viet Nam to participate in our Models for Change program, which we hope will encourage the authorities to commit to a strategy to provide industry workers with alternative and economically viable livelihoods, while also supporting government efforts to eliminate rabies. While dog meat remains prevalent in some parts of the country, there is also increasing opposition to the practice among the rising pet loving population in Viet Nam who are frustrated by the lack of action taken against unscrupulous dog thieves and traders who steal people’s beloved companions. As the role dogs play in society changes, so too must legislation to protect them from cruelty and exploitation.”
HSI’s Models for Change program started in Viet Nam final 12 months after efficiently working in South Korea since 2015 the place the charity has closed down 18 canine meat farms and helped build public and political assist for a nationwide ban. HSI introduced its Models for Change program to Viet Nam final 12 months with the closure of a canine slaughterhouse and restaurant owned by a neighbor of Mr Hung. The closure impressed Mr Hung to contact the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry for assist rehoming his dogs, which in flip requested HSI to offer experience and assets to assist the rescue and prepare native veterinarians for the long-term success of the rescue middle.
Dog meat information:
- Viet Nam is home to essentially the most prolific canine and cat meat trades in Southeast Asia, slaughtering an estimated 5 million dogs and a million cats annually. A perception by some shoppers persists—regardless of no scientific proof—that canine meat has medicinal properties and might improve male virility.
- HSI analysis means that canine meat is eaten by round 40% of the inhabitants however shouldn’t be an costly delicacy, costing from 150,000 – 200,000 VND ($6 – $8) per dish in Thai Nguyen.
- While the sale and consumption of canine meat shouldn’t be unlawful in Viet Nam, each the unregulated trans-provincial motion of dogs and pet theft are punishable offences. Officials in a number of cities together with Hanoi and Hoi An have pledged to finish the commerce, however legislation enforcement is uncommon.
- Pet theft and the arrest of pet thieves is regularly reported within the Vietnamese media, and devastated pet homeowners usually buy back their beloved companions if they’re lucky sufficient to find them after seize.
- The hyperlink between rabies transmission and Viet Nam’s canine meat commerce has been clearly recognized by the WHOi. Data from Viet Nam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology reveals {that a} important proportion of sufferers turn into contaminated with the virus after killing, butchering or consuming dogs, in addition to from bites. In 2018 and 2019, the authorities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City respectively urged residents to not eat canine meat to scale back their threat of illness transmission.
- Studies of mind samples of dogs collected from slaughterhouses in northern and southern provinces have additionally examined constructive for the rabies virus.
- In July 2023, the People’s Committee of Dong Nai Province and HSI in Viet Nam signed a first-of-its-kind three-year settlement to work collectively to sort out the canine and cat meat trades by implementing a rabies vaccination program, discouraging canine and cat meat consumption by public consciousness campaigns, supporting legislation enforcement’s anti-dog and cat trafficking actions, selling companion animal welfare and serving to canine and cat meat trade employees transition to different livelihoods.
Download photos/video of the dog slaughterhouse closure operation
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