Police saves 800 dogs from plates
BANGKOK - More than 800 dogs destined to be smuggled to Vietnam where
they would be butchered and eaten, have been rescued in a police
raid on a farm in north-eastern Thailand, officials said today.
Authorities acting on a tip-off found the dogs crammed into small
metal cages on a farm in Nakhon Phanom province yesterday,
department of livestock development official Apai Suthisung said.
"The dogs were caught all over north-eastern provinces and were
to be traded in exchange for consumer products like plastic tubs,"
he told AFP.
Six people were arrested in the raid and charged with smuggling
animals out of the country, which carries a maximum two-year jail
term and a fine of 40,000 baht (about $A1,420).
Licensed dog breeders can sell the creatures, but smuggling them
across Thai borders is illegal, Apai said.
The dogs, many of which appeared well-groomed and in healthy
condition, were to be ferried across the Mekong river to Laos
before their journey to Vietnam where they would be sold for 300
to 400 baht ($A10.60 to $A14.20) each.
Dog eating has come under fire in places like South Korea, but the
practice has gone unchallenged in Vietnam.
The communist country has no animal welfare organisations and no
laws to protect animals from cruelty, and the practice enjoys
runaway popularity in the country's north including the capital
Hanoi, where streets in some neighbourhoods are lined with
dogmeat restaurants.
Agence France Presse - November 04, 2003.
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