HANOI: A Vietnamese looking for his missing dog ended up buying 31 dogs that were about to be slaughtered in a dog abattoir in the southern coastal resort of Nha Trang.
The 46-year-old man, Do Minh Khoi, carried out the slaughterhouse rescue last week and took all the dogs home after buying them for VND24 million (US$1,027).
According to a Vn Express report, Khoi was looking for his missing dogs, when he came across the dogs and decided he had to save them from certain death.
After buying the 31 dogs, he took pictures of them and posted them on social media in the hope of finding their owners as many dogs have been reported stolen and sold to abattoirs.
Two families recognised their dogs from the photos and have since picked them up from him.
Khoi said his three dogs went missing and his family had launched a search throughout Nha Trang town and neighbouring areas.
On Saturday, he entered a slaughterhouse in Dien Khanh district and discovered the 31 dogs in cages, awaiting slaughter.
Looking at the terrified dogs crammed into cages, he immediately decided to buy all the dogs from the slaughterhouse owner.
Khoi revealed that since he has another 20 adopted dogs, most of them feral, his house was too small to accommodate the 31 dogs.
The Vn Express said he has received numerous requests for adoption since then but he wants to keep them longer so that the rightful owners can get them back.
"If I can't find the previous owners, I will take the dogs to an animal shelter," he said.
Khoi added that a shelter was the most suitable place for true owners to find their dogs.
He was also concerned that people seeking to adopt the dogs might sell them back to abattoirs.
One of the owners who had retrieved their lost pet from Khoi said the family had been looking for their pet in dog meat shops and slaughterhouses but failed to find it.
After learning that Khoi had rescued it, she offered him some money, but he refused to accept it.
"My family and I could only express our gratitude," she added.
Khoi said he has found one of his dogs but two more are still missing. But seeing other pets that were stolen being reunited with their owners was very heartwarming, he added.
Criminal gangs and individuals are known to steal pet dogs to be sold to abattoirs as dog meat remains a delicacy in the country.
Recently, police in the north central province of Nghe An arrested six members of a dog theft gang on suspicion that they stole around 100 dogs every night.
The Vn Express reported that many families in Nghe An and its neighbouring province Ha Tinh have recently complained to local authorities that their dogs have been stolen at night.
Following investigations, police raided the gang leader's house and found 63 dogs and 15 cats, which they had stolen.
Police also seized a pickup truck that was used to transport the stolen dogs, stun guns, and other tools.
Investigators identified the dog theft gang leader as Hong and said they operated from Nghe An to Ha Tinh provinces.
Their modus operandi is having four gang members nab pet dogs with stun guns, with their remaining accomplices followed with the pickup truck for collection.
On average, the gang stole about 100 dogs each night and had sold them to Hong for VND50,000 (US$2.14) per kg, who then sold them to other dog traders.
Police are now investigating to determine the total number of dogs stolen by the gang.
According to the Vn Express, dog theft is rarely treated as a criminal offense in Vietnam unless the stolen animals are valued at more than VND2 million (US$86).
Vietnam consumes an estimated five million dogs a year, second only to China's 20 million.
It is believed that many of the dogs that make it to the grill are stolen pets sold to small, unregulated abattoirs and many are killed in brutal ways.