Two men arrested

BANGKOK (AP):

Thai authorities have arrested two men who tried to smuggle 120 dogs to Vietnam to be sold for human consumption, police disclosed yesterday.

Acting on a tip, local officials and police officers stopped two pickup trucks carrying the dogs stuffed into bags in Nakhon Phanom province in northern Thailand near Laos, police Lieutenant Colonel Detchai Wannapruek said.

He said police arrested the two drivers, a 24-year-old Thai and 23-year-old Vietnamese, and they confessed. They face charges of illegally transporting animals, unlicensed trade of animals and cruelty to animals. They could also be charged with transporting unvaccinated animals.

National response

"They were hired to drive the vehicles to the border, where the dogs would be sent off to Vietnam," Detchai said.

Police said 31 of the dogs were dead and the remaining 89 will be taken to a centre that cares for rescued dogs in Nakhon Phanom, 370 miles (600 kilometres) northeast of Bangkok.

In mid-August, about 1,800 dogs were rescued from smugglers in Nakhon Phanom, police said.

Their rescue made national news and after learning of their sad state Thais dona-ted more than 20 million baht (US$667,000) to help the animals.