Dog meat restaurant in Viet Nam closes after 20 years

This video features a dog meat restaurant and slaughterhouse in the Trang Bom district of Viet Nam’s Dong Nai province closing after 20 years as part of the Models for Change program by animal protection charity Humane Society International. Launched in Viet Nam in 2022, the program helps people transition out of the cruel and dangerous dog and cat meat trade to tackle animal cruelty and rabies transmission in partnership with Dong Nai’s Department of Livestock, Animal Health and Fishery. Forty-year-old owner Mr. Dao Van Cuong plans to set up a business selling paint and subsequently also supplying household gas cylinders to local residents with a one-off startup grant from HSI.

Dong Nai province, situated in the south of Viet Nam and bordering Ho Chi Minh City, has around 500 restaurants serving both dog and cat meat. It is also a trafficking route for dogs headed for slaughter in the north of the country. HSI began working in the province at the request of city officials and to date HSI has supported rabies education activities for children, trained government veterinarians in spay/neuter techniques and conducted rabies prevention workshops throughout Dong Nai.

For more than two decades, the restaurant and slaughterhouse now run by Mr. Cuong has received shipments of thousands of dogs from across the country, who have been killed and served for human consumption. Across the province, live dogs are delivered to facilities like this, tightly packed in cages on trucks driving for hours from neighbouring Mekong Delta province. Many dogs are also supplied by local traders collecting dogs via motorbike from nearby residents who sell their pets or breed puppies for the meat trade. Mr. Cuong took over the business nine years ago but the guilt and stress he felt from killing dogs contributed to his decision to leave the dog meat trade once and for all and switch to an alternative livelihood.