Vietnamese restaurant that drowned up to 300 cats a month shuts down
- Gia Bao’s owner Pham Quoc Doanh said he added cat meat to the menu to make it more profitable because he was struggling to support his family
- He was given a grant in exchange for closing his restaurant and giving the animals away
A Vietnamese restaurant that drowned up to 300 cats a month to feed diners has closed down.
Pham Quoc Doanh, the owner of Gia Bao in Thái Nguyên, northeastern Vietnam, told Metro that he knew some were people’s pets but that he didn’t have a choice because he needed the money.
Doanh said that he added cat meat to the restaurant’s menu to make it more profitable because he was struggling to support his family, noting that there were no other restaurants nearby selling the meat.
Doanh drowned the cats individually in a bucket, Metro reported. “I felt sorry for them when I saw them suffering during slaughtering,” he said.
“When I think of all the thousands of cats I’ve slaughtered and served up here over the years, it’s upsetting,” Doanh said in a press release published by animal welfare organisation Humane Society International. “Cat theft is so common in Vietnam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone’s loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that.”
In 2022, HSI started a programme offering financial incentives to Vietnamese restaurants if they stop selling cat and dog meat and give the animals up for adoption. Doanh was given a one-time grant in exchange for closing his restaurant and giving the animals away.