THEY LIKE their cats fried with garlic and washed down with beer in Vietnam's specialist restaurants.
Some diners even falsely believe that by eating a cat's spine they will gain the feline's agility.
Although no official statistics are available, eating cat meat in Vietnam is by all accounts almost as popular as eating dog meat, something of a tradition in the Southeast Asian nation, despite the import of both meats being illegal.
Vietnam's cat trade has caused outrage among animal lovers across the world after reports that Vietnamese officials this week buried thousands of seized cats after the felines were smuggled from China.
First reports suggested that many of the cats found crammed into bamboo crates on a truck were buried alive.
But Hanoi police later issued a statement denying this happened, insisting they were crushed to death with a dump truck before being buried.
Animal rights advocates had pleaded with officials to hand the three tonnes of cats over to them after photographs showed them stacked on top of one another, in obvious distress.
But a police officer said they had to be buried in accordance with Vietnamese law on smuggled goods.
"The cats were from China, with no official origin papers and no quarantine," an officer from the Dong Da district environmental police told reporters in Hanoi.
"Several of them had died. There was a terrible smell that could have affected the environment and carried risk of future diseases," he said.
"Therefore we culled them by burying them."
One petition on change.org urging Vietnamese officials to "change their animal handling policies" garnered more than 23,000 signatures.
Animal rights groups say cats and dogs are smuggled across the border from China, Thailand and Laos to feed the Vietnamese trade.
Residents of Hanoi say they see few cats and dogs roaming the streets.
Global Conservation and other animals rights groups have vowed to step up campaigns to pressure Vietnamese authorities to strengthen animal cruelty laws.
Meanwhile in Thailand . . .
Black Market Tigers Linked to Thai Temple, Report Says
IT'S THE HOTTEST part of the day at a forest monastery in western Thailand, and tourists are led by the hand, one by one, into the beating sun to pet chained tigers and smile for the camera. Every day at this unusual ''Tiger Temple,'' as many as 800 tourists pay 300 Thai baht each for their chance to interact with the endangered big cats.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080620-tiger-temple.html
Some diners even falsely believe that by eating a cat's spine they will gain the feline's agility.
Although no official statistics are available, eating cat meat in Vietnam is by all accounts almost as popular as eating dog meat, something of a tradition in the Southeast Asian nation, despite the import of both meats being illegal.
Vietnam's cat trade has caused outrage among animal lovers across the world after reports that Vietnamese officials this week buried thousands of seized cats after the felines were smuggled from China.
First reports suggested that many of the cats found crammed into bamboo crates on a truck were buried alive.
But Hanoi police later issued a statement denying this happened, insisting they were crushed to death with a dump truck before being buried.
Animal rights advocates had pleaded with officials to hand the three tonnes of cats over to them after photographs showed them stacked on top of one another, in obvious distress.
But a police officer said they had to be buried in accordance with Vietnamese law on smuggled goods.
"The cats were from China, with no official origin papers and no quarantine," an officer from the Dong Da district environmental police told reporters in Hanoi.
"Several of them had died. There was a terrible smell that could have affected the environment and carried risk of future diseases," he said.
"Therefore we culled them by burying them."
One petition on change.org urging Vietnamese officials to "change their animal handling policies" garnered more than 23,000 signatures.
Animal rights groups say cats and dogs are smuggled across the border from China, Thailand and Laos to feed the Vietnamese trade.
Residents of Hanoi say they see few cats and dogs roaming the streets.
Global Conservation and other animals rights groups have vowed to step up campaigns to pressure Vietnamese authorities to strengthen animal cruelty laws.
Meanwhile in Thailand . . .
Black Market Tigers Linked to Thai Temple, Report Says
IT'S THE HOTTEST part of the day at a forest monastery in western Thailand, and tourists are led by the hand, one by one, into the beating sun to pet chained tigers and smile for the camera. Every day at this unusual ''Tiger Temple,'' as many as 800 tourists pay 300 Thai baht each for their chance to interact with the endangered big cats.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080620-tiger-temple.html
I have hundreds of photos from behind the scenes of the tiger temple was taken there by a monk because i could speak to him in his native language, can send you there are bears and all sorts of animals that have been brought to the temple, this was 2007 during time of report
Posted by Michael on February 5, 2015 11:26