Ending Viet Nam’s dog and cat meat trades

Humane Society International / Global


HSI/Viet Nam country director rescuing a dog from a slaughterhouse in Viet Nam
Chau Doan/AP Images for HSI

Cruel and dangerous trades

An estimated five million dogs and one million cats are caught, stolen, trafficked and slaughtered every year in Viet Nam to supply meat for human consumption. This trade involves immense animal cruelty and criminal activity.   To catch dogs, traders use poisoned food baits, tasers and iron pincers while spring-loaded snares are used for cats. Animals are also snatched from people’s homes, as well as trafficked across the border from neighboring countries such as Cambodia and China.

During transport, the animals are tightly packed into small cages, loaded onto trucks and transported on arduous journeys, sometimes lasting several days. Throughout the journey, they are denied food, water or rest, and many die from suffocation, dehydration or heatstroke before reaching their final destination—a restaurant, market or slaughterhouse.

Not only is the trade in dogs immensely cruel, it poses a public health and safety risk, particularly due to its role in facilitating the transmission of the deadly rabies virus that still kills approximately 70 people each year in Viet Nam. The majority of human rabies cases in Viet Nam are linked to dog bites, with a significant number directly linked to the slaughter, butchering and even consumption of dogs. With vast numbers of dogs of unknown disease or vaccination status being trafficked across the country, the dog meat trade directly jeopardizes anti-rabies efforts and puts at risk the health and life of everyone connected with the trade.

Growing local opposition to the trades

Viet Nam is somewhat unusual in Asia in terms of the relative popularity of dog meat. In most countries across the continent where the trade exists, dog meat is only consumed by a small minority of the population, whereas the latest Nielsen opinion poll commissioned by HSI in September 2023 shows that dog meat is consumed by nearly 40% of the Vietnamese population, more popular than cat meat at 21%. It is most popular among men in northern Viet Nam. Cat meat dishes are particularly common around the capital, Hanoi, and in the northern province of Thai Binh.

Despite this, there is considerable and growing national support for a ban on the dog and cat meat trades in Viet Nam, particularly among young people and people who live in the south. Nationally, 64% and 68% of people, respectively, support a ban on dog meat consumption and the dog meat trade, and 71% of people support a ban on both cat meat consumption and trade. By far the top reasons for not consuming dog and cat meat are a belief that they are companion animals and an aversion to animal cruelty. Perhaps key to this sentiment is the growing pet owning population in Viet Nam, and indeed 87% of poll respondents had either directly or indirectly experienced the theft of a companion animal.

Our work

Humane Society International’s team in Viet Nam works throughout the country to tackle the dog and cat meat trades, calling for the strengthening of laws and regulations to prohibit the trades on grounds of animal welfare and public health and safety.

Our goal is a nationwide ban on the cruel trades in the slaughtering and consumption of dogs and cats. We are committed to raising the profile of the issue to both the government and public by highlighting the inherent animal cruelty, the illegality involved in the trades, the emotional toll on pet guardians, as well as the significant risk the trade poses to public health and safety. We are harnessing the voices of the ever-growing pet-owning and -loving society in Viet Nam to influence policy makers in favor of reform, while also working to end the demand, and, therefore, the supply, of dogs and cats.

We are also working with the authorities in two target provinces to launch programs to encourage responsible pet guardianship, increase pet sterilization and rabies vaccination coverage, promote compassion to all companion animals and support the enforcement of existing laws that are routinely flouted by traders and, thereby, disrupt their illegal operations. Our aim is for these programs to serve as models for other provinces and encourage national policy reform.

In addition, after many years of running our Models for Change program in South Korea, we launched this program in Viet Nam in 2022. We are working directly with traders and industry workers who are seeking to leave the cruel trades behind them and transition to alternative livelihoods. As well as rescuing dogs and cats where we can and ending the cycle of suffering for countless others, our Models for Change program is inspiring other traders to follow suit. At the same time, our program is helping to raise vital public and political awareness of—and opposition towards—the trades, and serve as a blueprint for authorities to follow.

Adoption

The dogs and cats we rescue from the meat trades in Viet Nam receive excellent veterinary care and rehabilitation at a specially designed shelter at our partner, Thai full health, the animals are made available for local adoption so that they can be cared for in safe and loving homes.

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