THAI NGUYEN , Vietnam – A restaurant responsible for drowning hundreds of cats and kittens each month has closed its doors. According to Humane Society International (HSI), the owner of the cat meat restaurant asked for the animal welfare agency’s help to close the business “for good.”
In a press release, HSI said:
Thirty-seven-year-old Mr. Pham Quoc Doanh had run his cat meat restaurant and slaughterhouse for five years, drowning up to 300 cats a month to serve to customers as a dish called ‘thịt mèo’ (cat meat) and ‘tiểu hổ’ or ‘little tiger’. Regret at killing the animals, and particularly the knowledge that many were stolen pets, led him to resolve to get out of the trade for good.
The closure is part of HSI’s Viet Nam Models for Change program, launched in the country last year after successfully operating in South Korea since 2015. So far, two dog slaughterhouses/restaurants and one cat slaughterhouse have been closed.
With the use of an HSI grant, Mr. Pham Quoc Doanh will open a grocery store.
Mr. Doanh said:
“For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I’ve slaughtered and served up here over the years, it’s upsetting. Cat theft is so common in Viet Nam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone’s loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that. It makes me happy to know that thanks to HSI, my wife and I can now put the cat meat trade behind us and start afresh, still serving my local community but no longer as part of this brutal and crime-fuelled trade. I want to see a ban on the dog and cat meat trade in Viet Nam.”
Twenty cats and kittens that would have been sacrificed for restaurant “food” were turned over to HSI and they will be made available for adoption.
Quang Nguyen, Humane Society International’s Viet Nam companion animals and engagement program manager, said:
“We are thrilled to be closing down our first cat meat trade business in Viet Nam, and hope it will be the first of many as more people like Mr. Doanh turn away from this cruel trade. Although most Vietnamese people don’t eat cat meat, the belief still persists that consumption can cure bad luck, and the scale of the suffering is astonishing. These 20 lucky cats and kittens have escaped a terrible fate and will be found loving homes, but our work continues to see a nationwide ban on the cat meat trade that brings such pain and distress to so many.”
According to HSI, one million cats a year are killed for meat in Vietnam, all stolen pets and strays snatched from the streets. The cats saved from Mr. Doanh’s restaurant have been taken to a special shelter, vaccinated for rabies, and they will receive veterinary care until they are placed in permanent homes.
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good deal, nice to see someone turn that corner and help!
Disgusting heartless piece of crap. After torturing and causing the horrific deaths of these beautiful animals, he then closes his restaurant down and expects us to accept him. He needs to be jailed or somehow pay for the suffering and death of these animals
He and his family ALL DESERVE TO DIE!!!! Or I’m begging anyone in Vietnam to please eliminate this family permanently!!!
PUT THEM ON THE MENU!!!!
That piece of shit should suffer the same fate.
Right on! I agree with you 100%…
good start but not enough. he needs to sell every single possession he and his family own and give compensation to the owners of the cats he stole and killed and give anything left after that to animal rescue. if he wants to atone, he needs to atone properly and give back everything he can, them suffer. thats how you make a start on saying youre sorry. pretty words mean nothing, just so much mealy mouth BS. if youre sorry prove it by actions.
He DROWNED the cats? How many years of “guilt” did it take him….he still chose to torture cats as a livelihood……he still needs to rot in hell……..anyone can be sorry after the fact……
This is a difficult situation to deal with as it’s a tradition that goes back eons in some countries and was accepted as a normal occurrence and practice.
This man should be honored for his decision to close his shoppe and not denigrated for his past.
Nah. He Needs to somehow pay for the cruel heartless, suffering and death of these precious animals and surely you are aware of the heartless ways these animals are brutally killed in the dog and cat meat industry. These are not good people who could do what they have done.
Traditionally speaking Barbara. As a Veteranian, you should be so ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!!!! Are you living in pre-Medieval Times, much like the Asian amoeba who are still attempting to evolve into humans???
Where is our Covid 19 variants when you need to annihilatie a race, a few,…or better still, a species like humans!!!
i think you may find the owners of the cats he stole may feel differently. also the whole cultural thing is a total misnomer: perhaps you think foot binding is permissable? or burning those of other faiths at the stake? or how about breaking people on the wheel? hare coursing? badger baiting? the male head of a society deflowering virgins? are you seeing how ludicrous your reasoning is? if not i shall invoke my right as a self identifying ancient egyptian to avenge the murdered cats and hunt this bloke down, as in my adopted culture they are sacred.
Sorry isn’t enough. 300 cat deaths a month for 5 years. I’m no good at math, but that’s thousands of murdered cats. He obviously feels pardoned but the Universe will still punish him. If someone confessed to murdering lots of humans, they’d end up on death row.
Such a disturbing number of cats who were murdered. It is a shame he did not ask for help before but I guess better late than never. It is beyond me how anyone could do that to innocent cats. Despite the many good and caring people who exist, i find it impossible to like this species that I am a part of.
Il va pas aller en prison?! Sinon il doit mourir de cancer de testicule, j’espère.
Anyone wilfully harming any cat deserves capital punishment. May someone with nothing to lose bring this devil to the Justice it cannot escape, quickly.
So glad to hear this, but like the other comments, why did he take so long to change his ways? So many innocent cats had to suffer torture and brutality.
I hope this creep slimball restaurant owner gets his “just desserts” and gets drowned and killed exactly like he did to all the cats he drowned and cut up to serve to his slobby goss customers!!
I hope these gross humans that raise cats and dogs for meat all get cancer and die slow and agonizing deaths!!
Vietnam is such a cruel uncivilized country! These people are pure EVIL!! I hope they will burn in hell SOON!!!
I can’t comment on this because what I have to say won’t be in a nice manner. To all is reading this you know what I really want to say.