(VN) Fw: Hanoi dogmeat restaurants

[Guest guest]

From Animals Asia Foundation:

 

Dear everyone,

 

Whilst our work in Vietnam is focussed predominantly on bear farming, we

also took the opportunity last year of visiting several dog meat restaurants

in Hanoi and researching the trade.

 

In Vietnam, dogs are generally divided into " eat dogs " and " pet dogs " ; the

former being dingo type looking dogs and the latter normally small, white

and fluffy. There is also some prestige today associated with owning an

imported, expensive, pedigree dog.

 

Besides a significant in-country consumption, it appears that there is a

successful export trade from Vietnam into China's Guanxi's province. Reports

describe dogs with their feet tied, bound together in pairs by the legs.

Their mouths are sewn together with cords passing through upper and lower

jaws. Carried by the rope binding the legs, the dogs are hung upside down

from bamboo poles and carried across the border.

 

Certainly there are people in Vietnam who care very much about the welfare

of animals but, sadly, Kim is right; there is no quick fix to this. For

our part, with few resources and personnel, we are hoping to at least

implement a " Dr. Dog " animal therapy programme there to make a start.

 

Hanoi was recently the host for the CITES Animals Committee meeting.

 

An extract from our visit to the dogmeat restaurants:

On the 30th April we arrived at the dogmeat restaurant at 0615 and were

advised that we had missed the dogs coming in to the restaurant and also the

slaughter of some that followed. One trader then arrived on a motorcycle

carrying 4 dogs in a cage on the back of his bike. He told us that he

supplied one restaurant with varying numbers of dogs throughout the year.

The dogs came from the hillside and were thought to taste better because

they were leaner than town dogs. In Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet), he

supplied up to 120 dogs per day, but in the summer this number could reduce

to three per day. He advised that dog was traditionally consumed during the

colder weather to heat the body. The dogs were brought in at 9 - 12 months

of age, weighing 7 kgs and costing 21,000 VND per kg. All parts of the dog

are consumed, except the descending colon (large intestine) and the bladder.

The brain is used, and also the gall bladder which is dried and used to make

a sauce and then added to the meat as a flavour enhancer.

 

During our conversation, another trader with a motorcycle carrying five dogs

in a cage was seen driving up to a restaurant along the road and we walked

over to speak with him. Two young owners then came out of the restaurant

and after some discussion, we were invited to watch the slaughter of the

dogs.

 

The trader and restaurant owner carried the cage of dogs into a room

underneath the restaurant. The dogs were then scruffed and lifted out into

two separate cages - one with three dogs and one with two. The cage

containing the three dogs was set aside, whilst the one containing two was

placed into the centre of the floor. A large plastic bowl was filled with

water and a metal pan with cold water was put on the fire to boil. Whilst

waiting for the water to heat up, the boys sharpened their knives and

prepared a noose.

 

Once the water had boiled, one boy noosed a brown male dog around the neck

and lifted it out of the cage. As the dog hung suspended in the air, the

other boy brought a large sledge hammer down on the dog's skull and repeated

this four times.

 

As the dog slumped into unconsciousness, the first boy then plunged the

knife deep into it's neck, severing the jugular and going deep into the

heart to bleed the animal out. Once completed, after several seconds, the

dog was thrown onto the top of the cage whilst they repeated the process

with the second, tri-coloured dog. This time, one blow to the head was

deemed enough by the boys, who then repeated the bleeding out. The second

dog urinated during this time and was seen with his chest heaving, whilst

making strangled noises. Dr. Cochrane advised that this was a normal

response to the huge amount of blood and oxygen

leaving the body and she doubted that the dog would be feeling pain at that

point.

[Photos at: http://www.aapn.org/fooddogs.html ]

 

The boys plunged the bodies into boiling water and began to strip away the

fur using hands and knives. The animals were then placed onto a pile of

straw outside in the yard, whilst another pile of straw was placed on top of

them. The straw was set alight and the skins bar-b-q'd for a few minutes.

The dogs were brought back inside, rinsed down and eviscerated. Their head

and paws were removed and the bodies were taken into another area and cut

into pieces.

 

The whole procedure took approximately 50 minutes and the three dogs in the

other cage were witness to it all.

 

Note: It must be emphasised that the mother and her two sons, together with

the female restaurant owner were extremely kind and gracious during our time

there; allowing filming throughout. Whilst we were deeply shocked by what

we had seen, we recognise that there was no intention of deliberate cruelty;

a different

situation to that which we have previously observed in South Korea.

 

Jill Robinson MBE

Animals Asia Foundation

 

Find out more about the historic China Bear Rescue

by visiting the Animals Asia Foundation website at

 

http://www.animalsasia.org