Dog theft on the rise

HANOI (AP):

It was already too late when Nguyen Van Cuong heard a neighbour shout "Thief! Thief!" Two men on a motorbike had snatched up his beloved pet dog "Black" and were whizzing away.

Cuong and the neighbour sprinted in vain as the professional dog thieves hurled bricks, one of them slamming into the head of a bystander and killing him.

Similar fights have erupted across Vietnam between dognappers who sell man's best friend to restaurants and fed-up villagers who have increasingly turned to vigilante justice to pursue culprits because there is little police can do. Mobs have chased down thieves and clubbed them to death, even setting one on fire. But the bandits use everything from bricks to arrows to fend off the villagers and ensure their payday.

"Dog thieves are getting more aggressive, they steal villagers' dogs in broad daylight," said Tran The Thieu, police chief of Hung Dong village in central Nghe An province. "People are very angry to see their dogs stolen and dog thieves are rarely arrested."

Dog meat is a delicacy in Vietnam that's often on the menu at parties, especially in the north. Restaurants specialising in barbecue dog are especially popular at the end of each lunar month when men dine on canine in hopes of purging bad luck.

Dog restaurants in the capital, Hanoi, have boomed as Vietnam has become one of Asia's fastest-developing economies. But as inflation soars, some Vietnamese have looked for creative ways to earn money.

Because dogs typically roam free, they can be easy targets. Live dogs in Hanoi fetch about US$2.70 a pound (US$6 a kilogram), a bit more than for live chickens. A 44-pound (20-kilogram) pooch can sell for more than US$100, roughly the monthly salary of an average Vietnamese worker.

It's a good wage for thieves who cruise neighbourhoods on motorbikes, snaring pets quicker than a US car thief can hotwire a Cadillac Escalade. Sometimes, they incapacitate the dogs first by shooting them with darts or arrows pulsating with electric current.

In this September 6, 2011, file photo, dogs lie in the cage after they were intercepted and seized by Thai officials while being transported on pickup trucks in Nakhon Phanom province, northeastern Thailand. Thai authorities have arrested two men, a Thai and a Vietnamese, who tried to smuggle 120 dogs to Vietnam to be sold for human consumption.