Animal welfare organization Four Paws shared video surveillance footage on Thursday of a dog being stolen from the front yard of a house in Vietnam. The dog was stolen to be sold and killed for his meat.
The video shows someone passing on a motorbike, tasering the dog, and grabbing him. “This dog is dead now – just like millions of others who lose their lives to the dog meat trade every year,” Four Paws said.
Eating dog meat is still popular in the northern parts of Vietnam. The dogs are stolen from their owners, stray dogs or imported from Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
In December 2021, four teenagers were arrested for stealing 1200 dogs in two months in the city of Ho Chi Minh. They stole animals and sold them to slaughterhouses where the animals were killed and their meat sold.
According to a 2020 report by Four Paws, around five million dogs and one million cats are killed for their meat each year in Vietnam.
An investigation by We Animals Media and Asia for Animals Coalition revealed in August the brutal dog killing process in public spaces and behind closed doors in Đức Thượng Commune in the city of Hanoi.
Photojournalists Aaron Gekoski and Napat Wesshasartar investigated markets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, where they photographed caged dogs being killed and sold for meat.
The animals are crammed together in groups of about 10 in small cages. The dogs are usually killed by a blow to their head with wood and then stabbed in the heart. Their bodies are put in a fur-removing machine, and their skins are burnt.
“Seeing our companion animals being killed, hearing the sound of the injured dogs, and smelling their blood – it’s horrible and unacceptable,” Wesshasartar said.
Last year, the city of Hoi An in Vietnam announced it would stop selling cat and dog meat.