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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