The Agony of the Dogs

Dogs are not only considered a delicacy in Vietnam, they are slaughtered with intentional cruelty because the adrenaline this produces in the suffering animal improves the flavor. Dogs are also rare in Vietnam and must be smuggled in from other countries in an illegal trade that activists in Thailand are trying hard to stop. This is because the country where most of the smuggling originates is Thailand. Pet dogs provide the best meat and, because of their love of man, are easiest to handle. Activists believe that 98% of the animals involved are stolen pets.

The dogs are jammed into wire baskets where they often spend days packed together so tightly that they cannot move. They are smuggled from northeast Thailand across the Mekong River to restaurants in Vietnam. When they arrive, they are slaughtered in front of each other, so that the animals will experience maximum fear and the meat will obtain the greatest flavor. Animal rights activists believe that as many as 200,000 dogs are smuggled along this route ever year.

Dog smuggling is only one of many ‘cruelty trades’ in Asia, but it is probably the most cruel. The others involve things like whale hunting by the Japanese and the smuggling of ivory and Rhino horn from Africa by the Chinese. These three trades are decimating endangered species, but only dog smuggling is cruel enough to use the dog’s innate trust of man as a weapon against him.

How can we help stop this monstrous trade? The Soi Dog Foundation of Phuket is Thailand’s leading advocate for the animals. To go to their website, click here. To join Whitley and Anne Strieber in sponsoring their work, click here.

Thanks to CNN for their recent coverage of this problem. To read their story, click here.

Read Anne Strieber’s moving Diary, ‘the Miracle of Dog as God‘ about the miracle she an Whitley recently experienced involving dogs. Learn about the deep spiritual significance of the dog in Whitley Strieber’s Journal entry, the Dog God and the Future of Man.

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