The beginning of the end of the dog and cat meat trade
A lot has happened recently in our fight to end the dog and cat meat trade in Southeast Asia and we thought we would update you on all of the fantastic developments.
Over 1.5 million people worldwide (including hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Indonesian citizens) have signed our petition to ban the dog and cat meat trade (DCMT) in Southeast Asia.
This incredible support has helped us make a lot of progress over the past few months.
Since 2020, four slaughterhouses (three in Cambodia and one in Vietnam) have been shut down, in addition to the interception of a slaughterhouse-bound minivan carrying 61 dogs. We’ve managed to rescue the animals who were discovered on-site and match them with loving families in Cambodia, Vietnam and even the US. The dogs that have not yet been rescued are being well cared for in Cambodia, being leash trained and prepared for rehoming, with five dogs scheduled to be rehomed in Switzerland later this year.
But there are bigger, wider changes happening too.
Siem Reap became the first province in Cambodia to ban the trade thanks to our help. With this, we then supported the first government-led interceptions of dogs being taken to be slaughtered. This change in attitude will help stop the trade in its tracks and support government in actively intercepting illegal slaughters as standard practise.
This past December, Hoi An became the first city in Vietnam to ban the trade and Semarang in Indonesia recently followed. This meant Semarang became the first capital city of the Central Java Province and the fifth region in Indonesia to ban the dog and cat meat trade entirely. On 17th Jan 2022 the city of Malang (East Java) followed suit and pledged to go dog meat-free too. This is all thanks to the DMFI (Dog Meat Free Indonesia) coalition we are a part of.
Local support is swiftly growing too. Since its launch on 16th December 2021, over 3022,000 Vietnamese people have signed the petition calling on the Deputy Prime Minister to ban DCMT.
It is clear that this trade is deemed abhorrent by the local communities that witness it firsthand.
We are so proud of the steps we’ve made together with governments and coalitions across Southeast Asia and look forward to sharing further incredible updates in the coming months.
There is still time to sign the petition to end this cruel trade in Southeast Asia, so if you are yet to sign, why not have your say today?
