Region: Viet Nam

Owner Mr. Cuong will start a gas cylinder supply business with support from Humane Society International

Humane Society International

Nhan Tran/AP Images for HSI

DONG NAI, Viet Nam—A dog meat restaurant and slaughterhouse in the Trang Bom district of Viet Nam’s Dong Nai province has closed after 20 years as part of the Models for Change program by animal protection charity Humane Society International. Launched in Viet Nam in 2022, the program helps people transition out of the cruel and dangerous dog and cat meat trade to tackle animal cruelty and rabies transmission in partnership with Dong Nai’s Department of Livestock, Animal Health and Fishery. Forty-year-old owner Mr. Dao Van Cuong plans to set up a business selling paint and subsequently also supplying household gas cylinders to local residents with a one-off startup grant from HSI.

Dong Nai province, situated in the south of Viet Nam and bordering Ho Chi Minh City, has around 500 restaurants serving both dog and cat meat. It is also a trafficking route for dogs headed for slaughter in the north of the country. HSI began working in the province at the request of city officials and to date HSI has supported rabies education activities for children, trained government veterinarians in spay/neuter techniques and conducted rabies prevention workshops throughout Dong Nai.

Phuong Tham, Humane Society International’s Viet Nam country director, said: “Here in Dong Nai and in Thai Nguyen we are proud to be helping the government achieve its goal of eliminating human rabies deaths from dog interactions by 2030, including by addressing the dog meat trade. Viet Nam cannot hope to eliminate rabies and meet that 2030 target without tackling this trade. We hope our Vietnamese Models for Change program will become a key component of Viet Nam’s strategy to provide alternative, economically viable livelihoods for those like Mr. Cuong who are dependent on the trade, and that the program will serve as a practical complement to legislative and regulatory reform.”

For more than two decades, the restaurant and slaughterhouse now run by Mr. Cuong has received shipments of thousands of dogs from across the country, who have been killed and served for human consumption. Across the province, live dogs are delivered to facilities like this, tightly packed in cages on trucks driving for hours from neighbouring Mekong Delta province. Many dogs are also supplied by local traders collecting dogs via motorbike from nearby residents who sell their pets or breed puppies for the meat trade. Mr. Cuong took over the business nine years ago but the guilt and stress he felt from killing dogs contributed to his decision to leave the dog meat trade once and for all and switch to an alternative livelihood.

Mr. Cuong said: “For nine years I’ve killed dogs and chickens, butchered them and served them to my customers. The money is okay but this work doesn’t make me happy at all. I don’t want to kill these animals anymore, it makes me feel bad. Selling paint and gas cylinders to local residents will be a much more peaceful business. I’m looking forward to a business where I have a clear conscience and I am not involved in slaughtering dogs. I couldn’t have made this move without the support of HSI’s Models for Change program and the Dong Nai authorities, so I’m grateful for all their support.”

On Mr. Cuong’s final day of business, HSI rescued the last remaining 16 dogs who were found cowering in cages at the back of the restaurant. HSI moved them to a temporary facility where they are receiving veterinary care—including neutering and vaccination against rabies and distemper—and will be assessed for local adoption. Many of the dogs have matted fur, skin conditions and infected eyes.

HSI’s Tham said: “These dogs were clearly terrified when we found them. They’ve been through an ordeal and came close to death for the dog meat trade, but thankfully we got them out just in time. For these dogs, the dog meat trade is over and no more dogs will ever suffer and die at this facility again. But for the millions of other dogs for whom the suffering continues across Viet Nam, and the millions of citizens whose health is put at risk from the spread of rabies and other diseases, we will continue to campaign to end this cruel and dangerous trade.

Following the rescue, HSI’s Viet Nam team held a round table meeting with Department of Animal Health officials from both Dong Nai and Thai Nguyen provinces at which provincial leaders agreed to propose a directive to their respective provincial People’s Council to ensure the strong enforcement of laws and regulations on rabies and cross provincial animal transport and slaughter, that would make it more difficult for the dog and cat meat trades to operate.

Rabies kills more than 70 people in Viet Nam each year, according to the World Health Organization, with almost all cases caused by dog bites, including verified cases and data from Viet Nam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showing human infection after killing, butchering or eating dogs. International organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have set the goal to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by 2030, with Viet Nam being one of the key target regions for achieving this milestone. Tackling the dog meat trade in Viet Nam is key to eliminating rabies.

Mr Nguyen Truong Giang, director of Dong Nai Provincial Department of Livestock Production and Animals Health, said: “When it comes to tackling rabies, we must address every way in which this disease is spread in Viet Nam. It’s clear that the dog meat trade contributes to the spread  of the virus, which is why we are pleased to be working with HSI’s Models for Change program to help dog and cat meat trade workers transition to better and safer livelihoods for themselves and their community.”

Dog meat facts:

  • Viet Nam’s dog meat trade is largely supplied through snatching dogs from the streets or stealing pets from private homes. Traders frequently use poison bait such as meatballs laced with cyanide, and catch the dogs using painful taser guns and pincers.
  • Traders also go village to village to purchase dogs from rural communities that occasionally sell “excess” dogs for extra income.
  • For long distance transport, dogs are tightly packed into small cages and driven for hours or even days without food and water, many sustaining injuries as well as enduring exhaustion, dehydration, suffocation, heatstroke and even death to reach a slaughterhouse, market or restaurant.
  • The sale and consumption of dog meat is not illegal in Viet Nam, but the unregulated trans-provincial movement of dogs has been illegal since 2009, and pet theft was made a punishable offence in 2016. While several cities including Hanoi and Hoi An have pledged to end the trade, enforcement of laws is rare and trucks continue to openly transport hundreds of dogs at a time on national highways.
  • Most people in Viet Nam don’t eat dog meat. An Aug./Sept. 2023 Nielsen opinion poll commissioned by HSI found that around one quarter of the population (24%) had consumed dog meat (thịt chó) in the last year, with 64% and 68% of respondents respectively supporting a ban on dog meat consumption and trade. A belief by some consumers persists—despite no scientific evidence—that dog meat has medicinal properties and can increase male virility.

HSI’s Models for Change program came to Viet Nam in 2022 after successfully operating in South Korea since 2015, where the HSI has closed down 18 dog meat farms, rescuing more than 2,500 dogs and helping dog farmers transition to more sustainable livelihoods such as chili or water parsley growing.

View photos and video. To download these visuals, email Wendy Higgins whiggins@hsi.org.

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Media contact: Wendy Higgins, director of international media: whiggins@hsi.org

Humane Society International / Southeast Asia

HSI

HO CHI MINH CITY, Viet Nam—Humane Society International, a non-profit organization working around the globe to improve the welfare of animals, is proud to celebrate the long-term partnership between Pizza 4P’s and Tamago in their joint effort to eliminate battery cages and transition to cage-free facilities.

Recognizing the profound impact corporate reforms can have on the lives of millions of animals, HSI has made corporate social responsibility campaigns a fundamental priority. HSI played a key role in facilitating Pizza 4P’s transition to cage-free egg suppliers, leading to the successful partnership between Pizza 4P’s and Tamago.

In 2020, Pizza 4P’s, a restaurant chain headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City with locations across Viet Nam, Japan, India and Cambodia, became one of the first companies in Southeast Asia to commit to transitioning to sourcing eggs from cage-free hens. Cage-free production represents a strong welfare improvement over the industry’s antiquated intensive cage confinement systems in which hens are unable to spread their wings or take more than a few steps.

Tamago, a small-scale producer in northern Viet Nam, started a cage-free pilot project in 2023 to supply some of Pizza 4P’s locations in Hanoi. The pilot project demonstrated that hens were equally productive in the cage-free barn as they were in intensive cage confinement. As a result, Tamago decided to fully transition to a cage-free system.

Hoang Nguyen, director of Tamago, said: “Keeping cage-free birds is better for the animals and for the people who care for them. It also makes good business sense; after a one-year trial, the productivity of the cage-free hens is the same as those in cages. We are proud to offer a higher welfare alternative and thank Pizza 4P’s for helping us make this important switch. The long-term support from such companies is the key.”

Rising demand for eggs from cage-free hens at Pizza 4P’s northern locations has led Tamago to significantly expand its cage-free production. Initially supplying eggs to only a few stores, Tamago now supports all Pizza 4P’s locations in the northern regions.  “As we continue on our path of responsible and sustainable sourcing, of which cage-free eggs are integral, we aspire to build even stronger partnerships with like-minded suppliers,” said Thu Vuong, sustainability manager at Pizza 4P’s. “Together, we aim to fulfill our vision of ’Making the World Smile for Peace’ and to cultivate a world infused with compassion through our actions.’’

Hang Le, Southeast Asia regional manager of Farm Animal Welfare and Protection at Humane Society International, said: “We applaud the long-term partnership between Pizza 4P’s and Tamago. This is a strong example of how a company can implement cage-free policy by working with its current eggs suppliers to end the use of intensive caging of hens. Many companies across Southeast Asia have committed to be cage-free by next year, giving them a matter of months to transition. HSI can offer technical support for this type of transition, so we urge these companies to follow suit and contact us for support in switching to a cage-free future.”

Cage-free systems provide animals with more space, freedom to move, and facilities for expressing their natural behaviors. A growing number of food and hospitality companies including Accor, Marriott and Fusion have adopted policies to procure eggs from cage-free hens as part of their corporate social responsibility goals. Cage-free production is the system of the future.

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Media contact: Carson Baer, media specialist; cbaer@humanesociety.org

More than 50 puppies are rescued by Humane Society International

Humane Society International / Viet Nam

Meredith Lee/HSUS

THAI NGUYEN , Viet Nam—More than 50 puppies have been rescued from two dog meat fattening farms in Thai Nguyen as part of a joint effort between the local government and animal charity Humane Society International to crack down on the dog meat trade in one of Viet Nam’s dog meat hotspots. The owners of the two facilities, where puppies were bought from local villages and fattened up for weeks to reach slaughter weight, plan to transition to new sustainable livelihoods, one an agricultural supply store and the other a crop smallholding.

Download video and images of the rescue..

These are the fourth and fifth dog or cat meat trade businesses to close under HSI’s Models for Change program, coming less than three months after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a directive instructing local authorities to strictly implement rabies prevention and control. The link between the dog meat trade and the spread of deadly rabies has been well established by the World Health Organization and others. The trade undermines rabies elimination efforts because it removes vaccinated dogs who are stolen for the meat trade from local communities, effectively removing the barrier to stopping the spread of rabies. This is a compelling driver to end the trade, as is the suffering and killing of 5 million dogs and 1 million cats a year for meat in Viet Nam.

HSI has a three-year agreement with the governments in Dong Nai and Thai Nguyen to transition businesses away from the dog and cat meat trades, implement rabies vaccination and humane dog population management programs as well as promote public awareness campaigns to discourage dog and cat meat consumption. HSI will also work with law enforcement agencies to crack down on dog and cat trafficking activities.

Fifty-two-year old Mr Phạm Dũng ran his puppy fattening farm for seven years before contacting HSI’s Viet Nam team to begin the process of closing up. Supplying puppies to local dog meat restaurants and slaughterhouses for so long has taken its toll on him and he feels deep remorse at the lives he has sent to slaughter.

Mr Dũng told HSI: “I’m looking forward to putting the dog meat trade behind me and growing crops instead. Harvesting beansprouts and sweet potatoes will be a lot more peaceful than fattening puppies for slaughter, and a lot better for my mental health knowing I’m not causing any suffering. It’s also a healthier lifestyle with no links to rabies, so my family and I are happy about this.”

Thirty-five-year old Mr Trần Lê Hậu plans to open an agricultural supply store in his local community supplying seeds and fertilizer for crop cultivation.

“When I first launched this business three years ago, I hoped it would be profitable, but I no longer want to be involved in the dog meat trade,” he said. “I know about the dangers of rabies and other diseases, and I don’t want that for my family or my community.”

Most dogs killed for meat in Viet Nam are stolen pets or strays snatched from the streets using poison bait, painful taser guns, pincers or ropes. Others are smuggled in on trucks and buses from surrounding countries such as Cambodia. Puppy fattening farms, which rely on traders going village to village on motorbikes to exchange puppies for cooking pots or cash,  represent a smaller part of the trade but in dog meat hotspots like Thai Nguyen the farms are far more common.  The puppies are crammed together in small cages and driven for hours to facilities like those run by Mr Dũng and Mr Hậu for fattening up, many enduring dehydration, suffocation, heatstroke and even death on the journey.

Quang Nguyen, HSI’s Viet Nam companion animals and engagement program manager, said: “The dog meat trade in Viet Nam is not only an animal welfare disaster but also incompatible with canine rabies elimination efforts. The mass, unregulated production and movement of puppies and dogs to supply fattening farms, restaurants and slaughterhouses contravenes internationally recognized guidelines issued by human and animal health experts on how to control and ultimately eliminate rabies.”

Dr Katherine Polak, HSI’s vice president of companion animals and engagement, said: “HSI is working towards ending the trade nationwide so projects like our Models for Change program, in tandem with dog vaccination, law enforcement and public awareness campaigns, are vital to crack down on this cruel and dangerous business. For the more than 50 puppies we’ve rescued from these two facilities, it’s been a lucky escape from the brutal dog meat trade and we look forward to seeing them start their journeys to find loving homes.”

Recent HSI research in Viet Nam has shone a spotlight on the vast network of dog thieves, traffickers and traders who operate across the country. In January this year, investigators observed dogs being brutally treated in holding centres in Thanh Hoa province where they were jabbed with metal poles, dragged by the neck with tongs and crammed into cages in the sweltering heat to be transported for slaughter. The investigators filmed truckloads of dogs, each carrying up to 500 animals, being taken on the highways on journeys lasting many hours without water, food or rest.

The HSI Models for Change project was attended by representatives from Thai Nguyen and Dong Nai provincial Department of Animal Health as well as the central government’s Department of Livestock Production and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Mr Vinh Le Dac, director of Thai Nguyen Animal Husbandry, Veterinary and Fisheries Sub-department, said: “Rabies is a common disease in Viet Nam and the dog meat trade is a cause contributing to the spread  of the virus. Therefore, we are very pleased to collaborate with HSI in Viet Nam in the Models for Change program to contribute to promoting companion animal welfare and eliminating rabies in the province. Models for Change contributes to helping dog and cat meat restaurant, slaughterhouse and farm owners transition to better and safer livelihoods for themselves and the community.”

The more than 50 puppies rescued from the two fattening farms have been transported to custom-made sheltering at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry where they will be vaccinated against rabies and receive medical care and rehabilitation before being made available for local adoption.

Dog meat fact:

  • HSI originally launched Models for Change in South Korea as part of a strategy to demonstrate to the government that a phase out of the dog meat industry there was achievable in cooperation instead of in conflict with dog farmers. Having played an instrumental role in creating the political momentum that ultimately led to a legislative ban in South Korea, HSI launched Models for Change in Viet Nam in 2022.
  • Most people in Viet Nam don’t eat dog meat. An Aug./Sept. 2023 Nielsen opinion poll commissioned by HSI found that around one quarter of the population (24%) had consumed dog meat (thịt chó) in the last year, with 64% and 68% of respondents respectively supporting a ban on dog meat consumption and trade. A belief by some consumers persists—despite no scientific evidence—that dog meat has medicinal properties and can increase male virility.
  • HSI research shows that dog meat is not an expensive delicacy, costing from 150,000 – 200,000 VND ($6 – $8) per dish in Thai Nguyen.
  • Data from Viet Nam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology shows that a significant proportion of rabies patients become infected with the virus after killing, butchering or eating dogs, as well as from bites. Studies of brain samples of dogs collected from slaughterhouses in northern and southern provinces have also tested positive for the rabies virus.

Download video and photos of HSI closing down the puppy fattening farms

Download video and photos of Viet Nam’s dog and cat meat trade

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Media contacts:

The Nielsen survey was conducted online in August and September 2023, targeting 800 respondents aged 25 to 60, considering gender, age and regional demographics, with margin of error +-2.53%.

Humane Society International

David Paul Morris

DA NANG, Viet Nam—Humane Society International applauds An Phu Farm, a farm-to-fork food store chain in central Viet Nam, for its commitment to improve animal welfare. After dialogue with HSI, the company has pledged to phase out the purchase of eggs and pork products from farms that use intensive cage and crate confinement systems, and will apply this policy to its own pig and egg farms, with a commitment to fully implement by 2025.

An Phu Farm prides itself on being a sustainable food retailer in Da Nang with a vision to bring the best quality and sustainable products to customers. After nearly 10 years in business, An Phu Farm has six food stores, and both an egg farm and a pig farm, operations the company plans to expand in the years to come.

Discussing its commitment, Phan Anh Tu, CEO of An Phu Farm stated: “We are pleased to become the first chain in central Viet Nam to join the global cage-free movement. Our team is excited about this new journey and we look forward to working with suppliers and other stakeholders to implement this important commitment.”

Under An Phu Farm’s plan, eggs from all company-owned farms will be certified by an animal welfare certification program as the company moves to go cage-free by 2024 and guarantee that 100% of the eggs it gets from external suppliers will be cage-free by 2025 in all retail stores. The company has also set the target of becoming an animal welfare-certified pig producer that doesn’t use gestation crates by the end of 2025.

In its commitment, An Phu Farm joins companies including Pizza4P’s and Fusion hotels, among others in Viet Nam, that are working to improve animal welfare in their supply chains.

Cage-free housing for hens in egg production and group-housing for gestating sows provide opportunities for the animals to move freely and to express their most fundamental natural behaviors.  Cage-free systems are a tremendous step up from the antiquated intensive cage and crate confinement commonly used in the industry. Gestation crates are barely larger than a sow’s own body and are so narrow that she cannot even turn around. Similarly, hens cannot even spread their wings or take more than a few steps in cage system housing.

Cage and crate-free housing are supported by leading international scientists and animal welfare scientists, and in response to consumer demand, companies and producers around the world are making this transition.

Hang Le, regional farm animal welfare manager for HSI in Southeast Asia, says: “Many companies and producers in Viet Nam have acted to improve the welfare of farmed animals. The pioneering commitment of An Phu Farm in central Viet Nam confirms that cage-free and group housing are the future.”

HSI works with companies and producers in various sectors, from retail to food manufacturing, to transition to higher welfare systems, such as cage-free egg production. In addition, we work with institutions to include more plant-based and protein alternatives for a more sustainable future.

Media contact: Phuong Tham: phuongth@hsi.org

Humane Society International / Southeast Asia

Chau Doan AP Images for HSI

HANOI—Viet Nam’s Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has been urged to take decisive action to end the country’s trafficking and slaughter of 6 million dogs and cats for meat every year, if his recent Directive to tackle deadly rabies is to be successful.

Rabies is endemic in Viet Nam with government statistics reporting an increase in human deaths, including 82 human rabies-related deaths last year across 30 provinces and cities and 27 deaths in the first three months of 2024. Nearly 70,000 people required rabies prophylaxis treatment. Interaction with dogs through bites as well as dog meat butchery and consumption—are responsible for 99% of rabies transmissions to humans. While the Prime Minister’s Directive rightly calls on provincial authorities to increase dog vaccination rates, global animal welfare experts Humane Society International warn that such efforts will forever be undermined as long as the country’s dog and cat meat trades continue unabated.

Phuong Tham, Viet Nam director for Humane Society International, said: “The most effective way of eradicating rabies in humans is to eliminate the disease in dogs. Mass canine vaccination is therefore vital, but so too is ensuring that those vaccinated dogs remain in their localities so that herd immunity is created. It is virtually impossible to achieve that herd immunity while dog traders are stealing and trafficking millions of dogs around the country. Every single month in Viet Nam there are tens of thousands of dogs of unknown disease and vaccination status being stuffed into trucks and driven from once province to another, disrupting any potential benefit from canine vaccination and helping to spread new rabies infections. We must also stop the unregulated importation of unvaccinated, and possibly rabies infected dogs from neighbouring countries including Cambodia and Laos, which threatens provincial rabies control programs.”

Recommendations from leading human and animal health experts―including the World Health Organization, Global Alliance for Rabies Control, World Organisation for Animal Health, Pan American Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States ―stipulate that mass dog vaccination must happen in lockstep with restricting mass dog movements so that a sufficiently high level of rabies vaccination coverage remains in the stable dog population to interrupt rabies transmission.

Dr. Katherine Polak, veterinarian and HSI’s vice president of companion animals, says: “Allowing the dog and cat meat trades to continue essentially unravels all the hard work of vaccination programs and puts humans throughout the supply and demand chain in direct contact with potentially rabies-infected dogs and cats. So while we very much welcome Prime Minister Chính’s Directive, we urge him to go further and bring forward a nationwide ban on the dog and cat meat trades. The recent ban in South Korea on the dog meat industry there demonstrates that where there is political will, we can achieve great strides forward to protect people and animals.”

HSI also calls on the Ministry of Information and Communications to include anti-dog meat trade messaging in its public awareness raising outreach to ensure that the public is aware of how much such activities increase the risk of rabies transmission.

There is considerable evidence spanning decades from throughout Asia of the link between the dog meat trade and rabies transmission. Studies from Viet Nam, China and Indonesia have shown that rabies-positive dogs and carcasses often appear in markets and slaughterhouses. In one study in Viet Nam, 16.4% of samples tested positive. The movement of different strains of the rabies virus in dogs being traded for human consumption has also been tracked. There have been a number of human rabies deaths in Viet Nam directly linked to slaughtering, butchering, handling and consumption of meat from infected dogs. For example, in 2007 in Ba Vi a rabies outbreak saw 30% of human deaths linked to exposure during the slaughter and butchery of dogs, according to the Department of Animal Health.

HSI’s team in Viet Nam has been campaigning to end the dog and cat meat trades since 2020. Most recently, the charity expanded its Models for Change program in South Korea helping dog meat farmers transition out of the industry, to also include dog and cat meat slaughterhouses and restaurants in Viet Nam. The program facilitates the transition of dog and cat meat-related businesses in Dong Hai and Thai Nguyen in addition to which HSI now has a three-year agreement with the government in both provinces to advance an holistic approach to tackling rabies through a rabies vaccination program, humane dog population management, public awareness campaigns to discourage dog and cat meat consumption, and law enforcement of anti-dog and cat trafficking activities.

Dog meat facts:
  • On 14 March 2024, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 22/CD-TTg calling on provincial authorities to establish local taskforces to implement rabies prevention and control measures. Those localities with low dog/cat rabies vaccination rates were advised to expand coverage.
  • A recent Nielsen opinion poll (Aug – Sept 2023) commissioned by HSI found that around one quarter of the population (24%) had consumed dog meat (thịt chó) in the last year, most notably in north Viet Nam (40%). A significant proportion of respondents support a ban – 64% and 68% respectively support banning dog meat consumption and trade, while 71% equally support banning cat meat consumption and trade.
  • HSI research shows that dog meat is not an expensive delicacy, costing from 150,000 – 200,000 VND ($6 – $8) per dish in Thai Nguyen.
  • While the sale and consumption of dog meat is not illegal in Viet Nam, both the unregulated trans-provincial movement of dogs and pet theft are punishable offences. Officials in several cities including Hanoi and Hoi An have pledged to end the trade, but law enforcement is rare.
  • Data from Viet Nam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology shows that a significant proportion of patients become infected with the rabies virus after killing, butchering or eating dogs, as well as from bites.
  • Studies of brain samples of dogs collected from slaughterhouses in northern and southern provinces have also tested positive for the rabies virus.
  • In 2018 and 2019, the authorities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City respectively urged citizens not to consume dog meat to reduce their risk of disease transmission.

Download video and photos of HSI closing down a dog slaughterhouse.

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Owner supports Humane Society International’s campaign to ban the cat meat trade in Viet Nam

Humane Society International

Chau Doan/AP Images for HSI

THAI NGUYEN , Viet Nam—Twenty cats and kittens who were due to be drowned at a slaughterhouse in Thai Nguyen, Viet Nam, have been given a second chance at life after the owner asked animal charity Humane Society International’s local team for help to close his business for good. Thirty-seven-year-old Mr. Pham Quoc Doanh had run his cat meat restaurant and slaughterhouse for five years, drowning up to 300 cats a month to serve to customers as a dish called ‘thịt mèo’ (cat meat) and ‘tiểu hổ’ or ‘little tiger’. Regret at killing the animals, and particularly the knowledge that many were stolen pets, led him to resolve to get out of the trade for good.

The closure of Mr. Doanh’s business and the rescue of the cats is part of HSI’s Viet Nam Models for Change program, launched in the country last year after successfully operating in South Korea since 2015. The program has so far closed down two dog slaughterhouse/restaurants and one cat slaughterhouse/restaurant in Thai Nguyen.

Mr. Doanh said: “For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I’ve slaughtered and served up here over the years, it’s upsetting. Cat theft is so common in Viet Nam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone’s loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that. It makes me happy to know that thanks to HSI, my wife and I can now put the cat meat trade behind us and start afresh, still serving my local community but no longer as part of this brutal and crime-fuelled trade. I want to see a ban on the dog and cat meat trade in Viet Nam.”

With a one-time grant provided by HSI, Mr. Doanh is setting up a grocery store. As part of the agreement, he signed over to HSI the remaining 20 cats and kittens at his slaughterhouse so that they could be rescued and placed for local adoption. HSI rescuers removed the traumatized cats from the property on the final day of business and watched as Mr. Doanh tore down the restaurant’s “cat meat” signage, symbolising his exit from the cat meat trade.

Quang Nguyen, Humane Society International’s Viet Nam companion animals and engagement program manager, said: “We are thrilled to be closing down our first cat meat trade business in Viet Nam, and hope it will be the first of many as more people like Mr. Doanh turn away from this cruel trade. Although most Vietnamese people don’t eat cat meat, the belief still persists that consumption can cure bad luck, and the scale of the suffering is astonishing. These 20 lucky cats and kittens have escaped a terrible fate and will be found loving homes, but our work continues to see a nationwide ban on the cat meat trade that brings such pain and distress to so many.”

An estimated one million cats a year are killed for meat in Viet Nam, all stolen pets and strays snatched from the streets. Traders use food baits to lure the cats into homemade spring-loaded snares. Polls show that an astonishing 87% of people have either had a pet stolen or have an acquaintance whose pet has been stolen. Pet theft is becoming a growing societal issue in Viet Nam, with the increasing animal-loving and pet owning population frustrated with the lack of law enforcement to protect their animals from unscrupulous thieves and traders. In addition to pet theft, truckloads of both live and slaughtered cats have also been reported coming across the China border. Cats (and dogs) are frequently trafficked incredible distances across Viet Nam, even in the baggage hold of passenger buses, often travelling for more than 24hours without rest, food or water in suffocating conditions, with many dying along the way.

A recent Nielsen opinion poll (Oct. 2023) commissioned by HSI shows that cat meat is consumed by a relative minority of the Vietnamese population (21%) with the majority (71%) in favour of 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.

All 20 cats rescued from Mr. Doanh’s slaughterhouse were taken to custom-made sheltering at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry where they were vaccinated against rabies and will receive medical care before being made available for local adoption.

Cat meat trade facts:

  • Cat meat dishes are particularly common around the capital, Hanoi, and in the northern province of Thai Binh.
  • In 2018, nine cooler boxes containing almost 1 ton of frozen cats was intercepted between Dong Nai province in the south and Thai Binh province in the north.
  • In 1998, the Prime Minister issued a directive banning the hunting, slaughtering and consumption of cats in efforts to encourage cat ownership to keep the rat population under control. However, little to no action was taken to combat the trade, and the directive was eventually repealed in 2020.

Download video and photos of the dog slaughterhouse closure operation.

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Media contacts:

Nielsen’s online survey of Vietnamese citizens was conducted in September 2023 with recipients aged between 25–60 years old, with a total sample size of 800.

Owner Mr Hung works with Humane Society International as part of charity’s Models for Change program to exit the trade and start new business

Humane Society International

Chau Doan | AP Images for HSI

Forty-four dogs, including 19 puppies just days old, have been rescued from a dog meat fattening facility and slaughterhouse in Thai Nguyen, Viet Nam, after the owner had a change of heart and shut his shop for good. Mr Hung had bought, sold and slaughtered up to 20,000 dogs for the meat trade over the past seven years, but said that killing the animals weighed heavily on his conscience and he was relieved when animal charity Humane Society International offered him a way out as part of its Models for Change program. Mr Hung plans to open an agricultural store for local community crop farming. 

HSI’s rescue team assembled from Viet Nam, Indonesia and India to remove the 44 dogs from Mr Hung’s facility and transport them to custom-made sheltering at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry where they were vaccinated against rabies and will receive medical care and rehabilitation before being made available for local adoption. 

Most of the estimated five million dogs killed for meat annually in Viet Nam are stolen pets or strays snatched from the streets using poison bait, painful taser guns, pincers or ropes, or imported from surrounding countries such as Cambodia. However, the majority of Mr Hung’s dogs were sold to him by rural families who breed extra puppies at home to supplement their main income.  

Traders typically go village to village by motorbike or truck to collect puppies from rural communities. The young dogs are tightly packed into small cages and driven for hours to facilities such as Mr Hung’s for fattening up, many enduring dehydration, suffocation, heatstroke and even death on the journey.   

Prior to the closure with HSI, traders delivered around 50 puppies every one or two months to Mr Hung’s facility, where they were kept in filthy raised cages without veterinary care and fattened up for several weeks or months to reach a suitable slaughter weight to be sold as thịt chó (dog meat).   

HSI’s research in other parts of Viet Nam uncovered the cruel practice of force-feeding dogs at some fattening facilities by forcing a tube down their throats and pouring rice directly into their stomachs. While Mr Hung claims never to have conducted force feeding, he is aware of the practice. As well as selling the dogs to local slaughterhouses and restaurants, Mr Hung also killed one or two dogs every day with a knife to the jugular or heart, in full view of other dogs. It was a cycle of suffering and brutality that Mr Hung said finally broke his heart.  

Mr Hung told HSI’s Viet Nam team: “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 well as tackling the extreme animal cruelty inherent in the trade of dogs for human consumption, HSI’s program also helps crack down on the spread of the deadly rabies virus across Viet Nam. Rabies kills more than 70 people in Viet Nam each year, according to the World Health Organization, with most cases caused by dog bites and verified cases linked to dog slaughter and consumption. A high incidence of rabies-positive dogs has been documented in slaughterhouses in the capital city, Hanoi. Whether trafficked from neighboring countries, caught and driven hundreds of miles across Viet Nam or sold for slaughter by local households, the dog meat trade involves the mass movement and slaughter of dogs of unknown disease or vaccination status and as such jeopardizes efforts by officials to control the spread of the rabies.  

Phuong Tham, Humane Society International’s Viet Nam country director, said: “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 began in Viet Nam last year after successfully operating in South Korea since 2015 where the charity has closed down 18 dog meat farms and helped build public and political support for a nationwide ban. HSI brought its Models for Change program to Viet Nam last year with the closure of a dog slaughterhouse and restaurant owned by a neighbor of Mr Hung. The closure inspired Mr Hung to contact the Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry for help rehoming his dogs, which in turn asked HSI to provide expertise and resources to support the rescue and train local veterinarians for the long-term success of the rescue center.   

Dog meat facts: 

  • Viet Nam is home to the most prolific dog and cat meat trades in Southeast Asia, slaughtering an estimated five million dogs and one million cats each year. A belief by some consumers persists—despite no scientific evidence—that dog meat has medicinal properties and can increase male virility.   
  • HSI research suggests that dog meat is eaten by around 40% of the population but is not an expensive delicacy, costing from 150,000 – 200,000 VND ($6 – $8) per dish in Thai Nguyen. 
  • While the sale and consumption of dog meat is not illegal in Viet Nam, both the unregulated trans-provincial movement of dogs and pet theft are punishable offences. Officials in several cities including Hanoi and Hoi An have pledged to end the trade, but law enforcement is rare. 
  • Pet theft and the arrest of pet thieves is frequently reported in the Vietnamese media, and devastated pet owners often buy back their beloved companions if they are fortunate enough to locate them after capture. 
  • The link between rabies transmission and Viet Nam’s dog meat trade has been clearly identified by the WHOi. Data from Viet Nam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology shows that a significant proportion of patients become infected with the virus after killing, butchering or eating dogs, as well as from bites. In 2018 and 2019, the authorities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City respectively urged citizens not to consume dog meat to reduce their risk of disease transmission.  
  • Studies of brain samples of dogs collected from slaughterhouses in northern and southern provinces have also tested positive 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 agreement to work together to tackle the dog and cat meat trades by implementing a rabies vaccination program, discouraging dog and cat meat consumption through public awareness campaigns, supporting law enforcement’s anti-dog and cat trafficking activities, promoting companion animal welfare and helping dog and cat meat industry workers transition to alternative livelihoods.  

Download photos/video of the dog slaughterhouse closure operation

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Humane Society International / Viet Nam

Call to ban the trafficking of dogs and cats throughout Viet Nam to supply markets, slaughterhouses and restaurants

Dong Nai pilot project by Humane Society International in Viet Nam offers hope for the conservation of Viet Nam’s wild elephants

Humane Society International

HSI Wild Asian elephants in Viet Nam. Images captured by camera traps as part of HSI Viet Nam’s project to monitor the wild population and humanely mitigate human-elephant conflict.

DONG NAI, Viet Nam—Efforts to save Viet Nam’s wild elephants—currently listed as Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List are being given a boost by a new collaborative, science-based project including camera trap IDs. The unique project is a joint effort between the government of Viet Nam* and animal protection partner Humane Society International and is part of Viet Nam’s new national elephant conservation action plan to protect the country’s remaining wild elephant herds. By using camera traps to create individual photo IDs and profiles for each animal, while also monitoring human-elephant conflict incidents and conducting elephant distribution surveys, the project aims to better understand elephants, their movements and behavior to help humanely mitigate human-elephant conflict which threatens this endangered sub-population of Asia’s elephants.

Viet Nam’s once thriving population of wild forest elephants has declined from around 2,000 individuals four decades ago to now as few as 100-130. Dong Nai is home to the second largest remaining wild elephant population in the country. Due to its significance, this region has been prioritized for elephant protection, and over the past two years researchers from HSI’s Viet Nam team have used camera traps to build a unique catalogue of the resident elephants, each with their own Vietnamese name and ID card of distinguishing features, behaviors, demographics, body condition and herd grouping. Male adult elephants such as Nga Lech, Cat Tien and Dat Do have been tracked and identified throughout the Cat Tien National Park, the Dong Nai Nature Reserve and the La Nga State-owned Forestry Enterprise of three districts (Tan Phu, Vinh Cuu and Dinh Quan).

The level of detail obtained from the project’s photographs and videos has never been achieved before for Viet Nam’s wild elephants. Among other results, it has enabled researchers to nearly double their estimates for Dong Nai’s sub-population from just 14 to between 25-27 individuals. HSI hopes this extremely encouraging data for Dong Nai’s sub-population might bring good news for a nationwide increase in population estimates should the project be applied across all elephant range provinces in Viet Nam, especially Dak Lak, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Nam which hold the other largest sub-populations.

Nguyen Quoc Tri, vice minister of the Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “Unlike other efforts, this special project with HSI provides us with science-based and practical solutions. From the viewpoint of government management, I highly appreciate the diverse stakeholder engagement that the project has involved, including local communities, researchers and animal protection experts so that both human and wild animal voices are considered carefully as part of each recommendation impacting elephants.”

The joint project not only helps better track and understand this elephant sub-population, it also helps to monitor and better manage human-elephant conflict incidents. Over the past several years, researchers have gathered data on the type of locations where such conflict occurs, the level of conflict experienced, as well as the number and identities of the elephants involved in each incident. The data gathered from community questionnaires as part of an elephant distribution survey has also revealed the true size of the elephants’ home range and those areas shared between humans and elephants.

These initiatives confirm that confrontational deterrent tactics such as hitting elephants with sticks, banging cooking utensils, deploying firecrackers and homemade explosives, or even setting poison, are not only detrimental to elephant welfare but can also make elephants defensive and more aggressive in the presence of people, which further escalates conflict. With so few elephants left, even one fatality due to conflict is a disastrous outcome. Monitoring human-elephant conflict through this initiative will improve mitigation strategies by basing them on a deeper understanding of the wants, needs, habitats and habits of the elephants.

Vo Van Phi, vice chairman of Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee, said: “Dong Nai Province would love to pioneer new initiatives to protect threatened species. Losing the last Javan rhino in Cat Tien National Park questions and challenges us to save other endangered species to ensure Dong Nai is one of the highest biodiversity hotspots in Viet Nam. Obtaining these promising results for our wild elephants, we sincerely thank MARD/DOF and HSI for their technical and financial support over the last several years.”

Phuong Tham, Viet Nam country director for Humane Society International, said: “Viet Nam’s elephant population is now so small that unless we act fast to protect them, they face the very real possibility of extinction. The Viet Nam government has acknowledged that conservation priority with a very welcome national protection program which HSI is helping to craft, and this Dong Nai project is a key component. With elephants and people competing for limited habitat, conflict situations can arise and even be exacerbated when violent or frightening deterrent tactics are employed. These tactics also treat elephants as perpetrators rather than as stakeholders who need to be understood. With HSI’s new research data, conflict situations can be approached knowing the characteristics, behavior, range and habits of the specific elephants involved, so that custom-designed solutions can be implemented that have a far better chance of promoting peaceful co-existence between people and pachyderms.”

Humane Society International and its government partners (Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee) formally announced the findings of the camera trap identification work, together with the human-elephant conflict monitoring and distribution survey, at a two-day workshop in Dong Nai on 30-31 Aug. Ten international experts joined with more than 50 Vietnamese delegates to share and discuss the best practices for elephant protection to apply within Viet Nam’s local contexts of small and fragmented elephant populations. It is hoped that the workshop will contribute significantly to assist Viet Nam’s decision makers in identifying which actions to adopt for Viet Nam’s national elephant conservation action plan, which will run from 2023 to 2032, with a vision to 2050. In the meantime, the data gathered and the methodology implemented will continue to provide the foundation for ongoing work in Dong Nai province, and the partners hope that it can be replicated in other elephant range provinces in Viet Nam to learn more about the local populations and mitigate human-elephant conflict across the country.

Download Photos/Video from the Camera Trap

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Media contacts:

  • Wendy Higgins, HSI’s director of international media, whiggins@hsi.org
  • Mai Nguyen, senior wildlife manager of HSI in Viet Nam, maitn@hsi.org,
*The government of Viet Nam is represented by the Department of Forestry under Viet Nam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Dong Nai Forest Protection Department of Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development under Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee.

Humane Society International / Southeast Asia

HSI.

HANOI, Viet Nam―The People’s Committee of Dong Nai Province and Humane Society International in Viet Nam have signed a unique three-year agreement to work together to tackle the dog and cat meat trades and promote companion animal welfare throughout the  province. This first-of-its-kind agreement will see the Dong Nai authority and HSI collaborate with local stakeholders to implement a vaccination program against the deadly rabies virus, using HSI’s unique mobile phone app to track vaccination rates.

Public awareness campaigns will also be rolled out to discourage dog and cat meat consumption, in addition to law enforcement activities to tackle the illegal trafficking of dogs and cats for slaughter, and assistance for dog and cat meat industry workers to transition to alternative livelihoods. Helping these workers switch to new livelihoods is a key component of HSI’s unique Models for Change program, which was launched in Viet Nam in Thai Nguyen province in November 2022 with the closure of a dog meat slaughterhouse and restaurant which now operates as a general store.

Tham Phuong, Viet Nam director for Humane Society International, said: “Safeguarding the welfare of our dog and cat companions not only brings animal welfare benefits, but also protects our communities from preventable diseases. We are delighted to be working in cooperation with Dong Nai province with the strong support of the provincial leaders of The People’s Committee, the leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health to implement this exciting program. Together we will improve rabies vaccination coverage and implement humane dog population management, as well as end the trade in and slaughter of dogs and cats. We know that as well as being immensely cruel, the dog and cat meat trades also pose a very real and grave risk to public health by facilitating transmission of the deadly rabies virus. Our joint program will bring the province practical ways to tackle those threats for the benefit of people and animals.”

Nguyen Truong Giang, director of Dong Nai Sub-Department of Animal Livestock Production and Animal Health, said: “The province has been trying to build an animal disease-free zone as recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for its two cities and all towns for the period 2021-2030. Therefore, through the main activities of this project including the control of interprovincial dog transport and applying HSI’s cell phone app information technology to manage rabies vaccinations and accurately record the population of domestic dogs, we expect that these localities will soon become rabies-free zones and contribute to our goals.”

The link between rabies transmission and the dog meat trade in Viet Nam has been clearly identified by the World Health Organization[i]; the elimination of rabies is being hindered by the continuation of dog meat trade activities. Data from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology shows that a significant proportion of patients infected with the virus after contact with dogs were not bitten by the dogs but had either slaughtered or eaten them.  Studies of brain samples of dogs collected from slaughterhouses in northern and southern provinces of Viet Nam have also detected the presence of the rabies virus. Such is the link between rabies and the dog meat trade that in 2018 and 2019, the authorities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City respectively advised people not to consume dog meat to reduce their risk of contracting and spreading the disease.

Dog meat facts:

  • Slaughtering an estimated 5 million dogs and 1 million cats per year, Viet Nam is home to the most prolific dog and cat meat trades in Southeast Asia.
  • While the sale and consumption of dogs and cats is not illegal in Viet Nam, the unregulated trans-provincial movement of dogs and cats has been illegal since 2009, and pet theft was made a punishable offence in 2016. While several cities including Hanoi and Hoi An have pledged to end the trades, enforcement of laws is rare and trucks continue to openly transport hundreds of dogs and cats on national highways.
  • A belief by some consumers persists—despite no scientific evidence—that dog and cat meat holds medicinal properties and can increase male virility.
  • Dogs are usually killed with a knife to the jugular and heart, in full view of other dogs, while cats are mostly killed by drowning.
  • A 2016-2017 study of dog brain samples from small slaughterhouses in Hanoi commissioned by Asia Canine Protection Alliance (of which HSI is a member) in partnership with Viet Nam’s National Center for Veterinary Diagnosis showed that nearly one in every 100 dogs had been infected with rabies, which is a high incidence rate.
  • Academic papers published in 2008 and 2011 are among those that establish the connection between the dog meat trade and rabies. Detailed references are available upon request.

Download video and photos of the closure of a dog slaughterhouse in Thai Nguyen province as part of HSI’s Models for Change program HERE.

Media contact:

[i] Hampson, K., 2009. Mission Report: Vietnam. WHO

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