HANOI: The police in Vietnam seized more than 400 cats in a major bust of a cat meat crime ring in Ho Chi Minh City, according to animal welfare groups and local media reports.
More than 40 of the rescued cats were reunited with their owners following the multiday operation last week, but around 100 have died due to the harsh conditions that they were kept in, the groups said.
Karanvir Kukreja, who leads a campaign against dog and cat meat consumption for the international nonprofit Humane World for Animals, said in a statement that this operation is “a sobering reminder of the enormous scale of Vietnam’s cat meat trade”.
An investigation last week into a spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City led police to track down the cat meat crime ring and detain nine individuals, according to local media.
Officers discovered 45 cages containing around 400 live cats and four ice-filled foam containers holding about 80 dead cats, with 21 live cats recovered at a separate location, according to The Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division.
Local media reported that this was one of Vietnam’s largest cat welfare cases in recent years.
The suspects admitted to trapping and collecting cats across south Vietnam over the past three years in Ho Chi Minh City and the cities of Tay Ninh and An Giang, the police said.
Kukreja, with the group Humane World for Animals, said that millions of animals fall victim to dog and cat thieves in Vietnam who snatch animals off the streets or steal family pets and slaughter them for human consumption.
