Vietnam police rescue hundreds of cats stolen for meat by animal crime ring

Major operation launched after spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City, according to local media

Police in Vietnam have rescued more than 400 cats in a major bust of a cat meat crime ring in Ho Chi Minh City, according to animal welfare groups and local media reports.

More than 40 cats were reunited with their owners after the multiday operation last week, but several dozen of those rescued have died due to the harsh conditions that they were found in, the groups said.

This operation is “a sobering reminder of the enormous scale of Vietnam’s cat meat trade,” Karanvir Kukreja, who leads a campaign against dog and cat meat consumption for the international nonprofit Humane World for Animals , said in a statement.

An investigation last week into a spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City led police to track down the cat meat crime ring and detain nine individuals, according to local media.

Officers discovered 45 cages containing around 400 live cats and four ice-filled foam containers holding about 80 dead cats, according to Ho Chi Minh City police. Twenty-one cats were found alive at a separate location.

With a total of more than 500 cats seized, local media reported it as one of Vietnam’s largest cat welfare cases in recent years.

The suspects admitted to trapping and collecting cats across south Vietnam over the past three years in Ho Chi Minh City and the cities of Tay Ninh and An Giang, police said.