Cruel trade: the flourishing cat-meat restaurants of north Vietnam
Cats destined for the pot are transported in squalid conditions before a cruel death. With policemen and military officers their most devoted customers, the illegal restaurants appear safe from prosecution, Simon Parry finds
A grisly surprise lay in store for a traffic policeman when he flagged down for a routine check a dirt-caked truck groaning through the night in Dong Da, on the southern outskirts of Vietnam's capital, Hanoi. Stacked in the back of the truck, hidden under tarpaulin sheets, were wooden crates jammed with thousands upon thousands of cats. They had been smuggled across the border from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, in China, to feed Vietnam's illicit cat-meat trade. Many had not survived the journey.
The stench, according to the policeman who intercepted the three-tonne cargo, was overpowering - but at least the ordeal appeared to be over for the survivors of the journey.
According to the truck driver, the cats had been loaded onto his truck in Vietnam's Quang Ninh province, where a thriving trade in live cats has developed in recent years.
Cat restaurants are booming and operating freely in Vietnam - even in the heart of Hanoi - despite the consumption of cat meat being illegal. The nation's emerging middle class has a taste for exotic, expensive meats such as cat, which is traditionally viewed as a source of strength and potency and is praised for its delicate taste.
Consequently, thousands of pet cats are snatched every year from homes across Vietnam and the southern provinces of China, where traders have been quick to capitalise on their neighbours' appetite.