Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested 12 men accused of running a sophisticated network that stole and sold nearly 2,700 cats for meat.
The quiet of the night in Ho Chi Minh City was shattered for thousands of pet owners by a calculated. motorized operation. Between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., teams of men on motorcycles roamed residential streets, hunting for cats and dragging them into traps. By the time authorities moved in, 12 men stood accused of turning neighborhood companions into a citywide commodity.
Police identified 39-year-old Luu Thanh Binh as the leader of the network. Investigations revealed Binh coordinated a supply chain where recruited hunters would snatch four to 10 cats each night. bringing them to a facility in the city’s north. Binh then processed and resold the animals for meat. On July 8, a police raid on the operation yielded 50 live cats and dozens of traps. The suspects have since admitted to investigators that they had stolen and sold approximately 2,700 cats in total.
Under Vietnamese law. where dogs and cats are classified as private property. the threshold for criminal prosecution is set at 2 million dong—roughly $77. The scale of this operation, which involved thousands of animals, has prompted investigations for theft against Binh and his 11 accomplices. Authorities successfully returned 13 of the recovered cats to their owners. while a nonprofit animal rights group remains in charge of the rest as police work to locate their families.
The trade relies on a dwindling but persistent belief among some that consuming cat meat brings good luck. despite no scientific basis for such claims. While the practice was historically more common in northern Vietnam among older generations. it has increasingly clashed with the realities of modern urbanization. Younger citizens are largely moving toward viewing dogs and cats as household companions rather than food.
The tension between tradition and changing social values is sharp. More than 250. 000 people signed a petition in 2024 demanding an end to the dog and cat meat trade. and the city of Hoi An made a formal pledge in 2021 to phase out the sale and consumption of these animals. This recent crackdown follows a separate June operation where police rescued more than 400 cats. finding dozens of them packed in ice alongside 40 survivors who were eventually reunited with their owners.
While police have dismantled this specific network, they have yet to determine how long the group had been operating in the city. The suspects currently remain under investigation as authorities process the scale of the thefts.
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City animal theft cat meat crime Luu Thanh Binh