Stealing pet dogs for meat in Vietnam | Unreported World

Vietnamese homes are being targeted by a unique type of criminal dog thieves these dogs are being sold for their meat to restaurants and slaughterhouses it's a crime wave that shocked Vietnam and is led to a spiral of violence often deadly I want to find out why some are prepared to kill for dogs this is a busy market in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam has a rich food culture and people here enjoy eating many kinds of meat including dog this is a typical market road in Vietnam and down that way I've seen about eight stalls all selling dog meats and they're proving to be quite popular this dog meat stall is receiving a new delivery that's a live dog in there and they've just weighed it and then they go into these cages behind well they kept until they're sorted I've served out their customers the stool owner tells me these dogs come from the countryside oh you bet only when I unpacked all my money right now I'm ready war was on the dogs are kept inside very cramped cages many of them are shaking it's just distressing to see how quiet they are it's about 30 dogs here you know there should be barking like mad and they're just silent [Music] in the last two decades Vietnam has changed dramatically it used to be one of the poorest countries in the world but after market reforms it's become one of its fastest-growing economies people are better off and so they go out more often why are you here today a boys night out means lots of beer and dog meat this packed restaurant serves nothing else miller bitNami it's the end of a very busy service at this restaurant and really it doesn't feel much different to a night out in the UK people here at clearly enjoying themselves they're having a great time they're having a drink but they're also having some dog meat [Music] most dogs used to be trucked in from neighboring Thailand Cambodia and Lao in recent years animal rights groups have largely succeeded in closing down these routes but this has led to a big increase in demand for dog meat from inside Vietnam everyday trucks deliver over seven tons of live dogs to Hanoi dogs it was it car as it trucks those dogs they're moving can you stop not just come across this truck and it's flow this is just one truck coming out of one village [Music] where are you taking them the other way where do these dogs come from there was even younger than we yeah corn ahead calling it ever bother me are you leaving I had to guy an a province under constant threat from dog thieves the majority of people in Vietnam live in the countryside they farm grow rice and raise livestock what's striking is the number of dogs out here they're absolutely everywhere almost every house he walked by has a net one dog if not several why is he in a cage Dan hyung is a farmer and the owner of a grocery store he raises guard dogs to protect his home in the last few years he's had ten dogs stolen to burn a llama so we have in Douala let every matoi he tells me that he people either keep guard dogs or raise dogs to sell for their meat dogs are considered a household asset the car they only saw in what we have today my vision and capture vision it'll come down Dane that's evening I head out on patrol with dang dog thieves are often armed with knives and stun guns to the patrol seek safety in numbers what's happening here is an unusual this type of patrol can be seen across Vietnam as commune alone has lost over 300 dogs to dog sees in the last few months and the villagers tell me that the dog these are coming here almost on a nightly basis why do you think the dog thieves keep coming back confronted keep on [Music] there's no prison sentence for dog theft in Vietnam most dogs are worth less than $100 well below the threshold for criminal charges so the rewards far outweigh the risks government officials have rejected tougher punishments for the crime saying there isn't enough room in Viet Nam's jails for all the dog thieves what would you do if you caught a dog feeding you I don't want any of the a silly toy you can come at anybody's a blanket dog thieves alone amongst all of the type of criminals in Vietnam run the risk of being killed if they're caught by villagers this is footage taken just after a mob killed a dog thief in this province last year 20 dog thieves have been reportedly beaten to death in the past five years and many more have barely escaped with their lives I head to the village of me each room in the center of the country they're taking me to the spot where they say it happened in 2012 two dog thieves were caught by village patrollers on this spot cries of dog thief rang out and the whole village came flooding to the scene the beating lasted for several hours all these villagers admit having taken part but they tell me they only intended to hurt the thieves kill them if there was another would you join again ten people in the village were prosecuted for the vigilante murders four of them have had their sentences suspended in this part of Vietnam dogs are rarely eaten they're mostly raised as pets and guard dogs people might find it very surprising to think that you know in villages like this one and others that people are being killed because of dogs Oh to know then jet moves every Kanto home phyla lovey you never blew in do you hold up danger private don't make it too noisy [Music] I wanted to see what was in store for stolen dogs I've been told thieves sell them on to dog traders or slaughterhouses so I head back to Hanoi to visit a slaughterhouse specializing in dog it's quite early in the morning and the traders are just getting ready and I'm about to meet the owner of a slaughterhouse to see how she's preparing for business today q vu has been running this dog slaughterhouse for 13 years together with a husband lam Tran they tell me people prefer to eat dog meat in cool weather how many are you planning to kill today it's time to kill the first dog lamb grabs him from a pit in the back he's rendered unconscious with two blows to the head then his throat is slipped do you think the animals you kill feel the pain there are no health safety or hygiene regulations for the killing of dogs for meat in Vietnam there are rules for the slaughter of cattle pigs and poultry but nothing for places like this over there there's a pits and inside there are about 10 dogs quite dark it's quite cramped and they don't look very well the government has no plans to introduce any regulations a previous proposal was abandoned when animal rights groups opposed it saying it would legitimize the trade so with no paperwork required to say where the dogs are from the dog meat trade is ideal for the black market minyul economy neither CEO and Lomb are a really warm really lovely couple but it's very odds because that seems to really care about where the dogs come from if they're stolen then they're stolen a new customer comes in he wants lamb to kill this dog so his family can have him for dinner he says it's his pet you brought your pets to be killed today are you you must be upset you know now God junko my makeup and Buddha's I believe like a medium medium so if I love ya it takes Lam four hits to finally bring him down [Music] we'll see a good friend to you was he a good companion who do you I don't know why but I know God does okay them lamb tells me this is not unusual for many people the same dog can be considered a pet and later food and yet others are willing to risk their lives for their dogs Bao Hyun was 18 years old he'd just finished school and was planning to travel to Japan a few weeks ago along with two friends he was killed by dog thieves today his family's holding a traditional prayer to send his soul to the afterlife that was an incredibly moving ceremony and you can see the devastation and the heartache on their faces but talking to vows family members there's been a sense of shock as to why I was killed thieves had been targeting this village for several months Bao became profoundly upset when the thieves stole two dogs he'd raised from puppies like on bangle and oh my god damn buckaroo my goddamn back open up and you wouldn't know the thieves fight a homemade stun gun at the boys chasing them one battle it golden yep yep four people have been arrested for the murder of the three boys and are currently awaiting trial she's up lumen she's up Lau tells me that in their households they don't eat dog they consider their dogs part of the family that's why his son was so upset when they were stolen dog thieves have become hate figures across the country on the outskirts of Hanoi and managed to track down two of them how many jokes you think you've stolen since you started nobody but upon barnico they tell me on a good night they can earn up to $100 from the dogs they catch but there are times they've been beaten up and once nearly killed by an angry mob him that comes out but they come quickly oh no way ya know it yeah some weirdo because out so you would actually kill someone over a dog with me without say white meat yet Thibodeaux mean white means H endo leave a place you saw coming dad do you have talked ourselves you bet have dogs [Music] the thieves told me they'd sell the dogs to middlemen who passed them on to wholesale dog traders I head to a village which is one of the largest trading spots for live docks in the north of the country [Music] it's another truck full of docks heading into sundown and that's a village well known to be a gathering point for dog meat traders and men in trucks like that one and on motorbikes come here from the surrounding villages and areas every day to buy and sell dogs just off that little street over there I walk into the first holding house I see there's about two hundred dogs inside I speak to the owner wearing their dogs from its packing time the crew is preparing a dispatch of dogs to Hanoi first they separate the animals taking to the back the dogs that won't be sold today [Music] one by one they grab the remaining dogs the dogs are sold by weight so force feeding them increases their value tubers today it's all really quite disturbing thing to watch I just find that really hard to me the light's not favorable the dogs are then forced into cages [Music] and they're being hosed down to remove the vomit the food that they've just been pumped seven crates are ready to go about a hundred dogs in total but today is a slow shift at busy times the holding houses on this street process around two thousand dogs in a single day that was difficult that was really difficult because it's systematic just house after house after house packed full of dogs and the same thing is happening to all of them there are no laws at all against animal cruelty in Vietnam animal rights groups here are trying to convince the government to introduce at least basic rules about welfare and protection for animals including dogs but these talks are at very early stages [Music] coming back and seen these dogs now knowing what they've gone through to get here and the fact that any of these could be somebody's pet it just makes it harder I returned to meet Q in the back she shows me her guard dog a nipple not gonna confit my corn she tells me that key was once one of the dogs destined to be slaughtered but just as they were about to kill him she noticed him looking at her oh my my my my new channel : yeah every time they were talking when they looked at the other one would you have a slow to him come chicken brother his yellow teeth I rotate it right they've told you come about our people because of the violence surrounding dog theft the Vietnamese are starting to talk about the many problems of the dog meat trade [Music] but without real punishment for dog thieves and laws against animal cruelty there's no end in sight to the pain for people or animals [Music] thanks for watching this classic unreported world episode click the logo to subscribe for more award-winning documentaries from the unreported world team we upload videos every Wednesday and Sunday keeping you up-to-date with content from all over the world [Music]

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 2,172,180

Keywords: dog meat, vietnam dog meat, dog meat in vietnam, vietnamese dogs, pet dogs, dogs, animal cruelty, vietnamese food, dog snatching, dog thieves, dog theft, punishment for animal cruelty, dog cruelty, fight dog meat, unreported world dog meat documentary, unreported world dog documentary, unreported world, channel 4 unreported world, channel 4, nelufar hedayat, unreported world vietnam

Id: -6Jr8nlc9dI

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/_BigMike]

Fuck vietnam. Let go back to war with this assholes.

edit: they don't have oil. damn.

[u/malvin77]

You know a country and culture are killing it when they have to eat dogs, good job guys....

[u/margonus]

But you're ok with eating other animals?