Vietnam savages its dognapping bandits

IT WAS already too late when Nguyen Van Cuong heard a neighbour shout “Thief! Thief!” Two men on a motorbike had snatched up his beloved pet dog, Black, and were whizzing away.

Mr Cuong and the neighbour sprinted in vain as the professional dog thieves hurled bricks, one of them hitting the head of a bystander and killing him.

Similar fights have erupted across Vietnam between dognappers who sell the animals to restaurants and fed-up villagers who have turned to vigilante justice to pursue culprits because there is little police can do.

Mobs have chased thieves and clubbed them to death – even setting one on fire. But the bandits use everything from bricks to arrows to fend off villagers.

“Dog thieves are getting more aggressive – they steal villagers’ dogs in broad daylight,” said Tran The Thieu, police chief of Hung Dong village in central Nghe An province. “People are very angry to see their dogs stolen, and dog thieves are rarely arrested.”

Dog meat is a delicacy in Vietnam that is often on the menu at parties, especially in the north. Restaurants specialising in barbecued dog are especially popular at the end of each lunar month when men dine on canine in hopes of purging bad luck.

Dog restaurants in the capital, Hanoi, have boomed as Vietnam has become one of Asia’s fastest-developing economies. But as inflation soars, some Vietnamese have looked for creative ways to earn money.

As dogs typically roam free, they can be easy targets. Live dogs in Hanoi fetch about $2.70 per pound – a little more than for live chickens.

It is a good wage for thieves who cruise neighbourhoods on motorbikes. Sometimes, they incapacitate the dogs by shooting them with darts or arrows pulsating with electric current.

Many Vietnamese are in two minds about dogs. They may rely on the animals to protect their homes and often give them names, but do not consider them to be pseudo-family members as in the West. That does not mean they do not care about their pets.

In Nghe An province, police chief Thieu said dog-related violence is escalating. Last June, a dognapper was chased and clubbed to death by a mob who then torched his body, leaving the charred remains as a warning on the roadside. Seven villagers were hurt in other incidents there when they pursued thieves who retaliated with knives, bottles and slings.

There are no charges specific to dognapping, and the typical fine for petty theft ranges from $50 to $100.

The dog-eating tradition, also popular in parts of China, South Korea and the Philippines, faces resistance from animal advocates.

One former US embassy worker in Hanoi was so revolted by Vietnam’s dog restaurants that he started the Kairos Coalition to promote humane treatment of pets. He says more Vietnamese are developing a Western-style love of pets, which may explain why the dog wars have become so heated.

“You are really witnessing the convergence of two trends,” said founder Robert Lucius. “The old way of the dog-meat trade, where animals didn’t count for much, is coming up against the new trend of keeping true companion animals that are loved, nurtured and valued for their own sake.”