Smugglers drive Thailand's grim trade in dog meat

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Smugglers drive Thailand's grim trade in dog meat

By Peter Shadbolt, for CNN

June 3, 2013 -- Updated 1036 GMT (1836 HKT)

Dogs slaughtered for meat in Vietnam

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dog smuggling is booming in Thailand around the Mekong border region with Laos
• Thai authorities say the trade has been growing thanks to a strong market in Vietnam
• Animal welfare groups say operators often pick up strays off the street including pets
• A dog in Thailand can fetch up to $10 but sells for $60 in restaurants in Vietnam

(CNN) -- Packed tight into wire baskets -- sometimes 20 or more to a cage -- animal rights activists say as many as 200,000 live dogs every year are smuggled from northeast Thailand across the Mekong River destined for restaurants in Vietnam.

Dehydrated, stressed, some even dying of suffocation on the trip, the dogs are often stacked 1,000 to a truck on a journey that lasts for days.

"Obviously when you've got dogs stacked on top of each other they start biting each other because they are so uncomfortable, any kind of movement then the dog next to the one that's being crushed is going to bite back," said Tuan Bendixsen, director of Animals Asia Foundation Vietnam, a Hanoi-based animal welfare group.

When they arrive in Vietnam, the suffering doesn't end there. A common belief is that stress and fear releases hormones that improve the taste of the meat, so the dogs are placed in stress cages that restrict their movement.

Eventually, the dogs are either bludgeoned to death or have their throats cut in front of other dogs who are awaiting the same fate. In some cases, they've been known to be skinned alive.

"Dogs are highly intelligent animals so if you kill a dog and you have a whole cage of dogs next to the one that's being killed, those dogs that are going to be killed next know what's going on," Bendixsen said.

According to animal rights groups, dog smugglers round up everything from family pets to Thailand's ubiquitous strays -- known as soi dogs -- to sell the animals in Vietnam, or even as far away as China where a pedigree dog can fetch a premium price.

John Dalley of the Phuket-based Soi Dog Foundation estimates 98% of the dogs are domesticated and that some are even still wearing collars and have been trained and respond to commands.

 

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That's not good - If my Rottweiler (150 pounds - Pure muscle) was still alive (bone cancer) I would like to see them try an take her.