Vietnam’s Love for Dog Meat Fuels Professional Dognapping Trade
For animal rights activists, the idiom of the day seems to be: one step forward, two steps back.
Barely a week after the cancellation of a centuries-old carnival in China where dogs were “chopped alive in the street” and then eaten, comes an ABC News report that Vietnam’s taste for dog meat has caused a spike in dognapping.
Shouldn’t there be riots in the streets, shouldn't Facebook and Twitter be blowing up with demands that this barbaric, draconian practice be ended?
“Dog thieves are getting more aggressive—they steal villagers’ dogs in broad daylight,” said Tran The Thieu, police chief of Hung Dong village in central Nghe An province, to ABC News. “People are very angry to see their dogs stolen and dog thieves are rarely arrested.”
Vietnamese dog owners aren’t riding the peak of the crime wave sitting down.
Fed-up villagers who have increasingly turned to vigilante justice to pursue culprits because there is little police can do. Mobs have chased down thieves and clubbed them to death -- even setting one on fire. But the bandits use everything from bricks to arrows to fend off the villagers and ensure their payday.
In many Asian countries, dogs are a delicacy and eating them is a practice that dates back centuries.
While some nations have outlawed the custom—namely Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Taiwan—it remains a treasured tradition in others, like China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
It is also a great way to make a living for Vietnamese petty thieves.
A 44-pound dog can sell for more than $100 — roughly the monthly salary of an average Vietnamese worker.
Where, you might be wondering, is the Vietnamese population on this issue? Shouldn’t there be riots in the streets or on Facebook on Twitter, demanding that this barbaric, draconian practice be ended?
That’s rub, you see, as the populace at large is dividied on the issue.
Many Vietnamese are of two minds about dogs. They may rely on the animals to protect their homes and often give them names, but don't consider them to be pseudo-family members as in the West. But that doesn't mean they don't care about their pets.
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