Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have dismantled what they describe as a large-scale criminal operation that stole cats from neighborhoods across the city and sold them for human consumption, according to Vietnamese state media. Police arrested 12 men in connection with the network, which investigators say was responsible for the theft and resale of roughly 2,700 cats.
The alleged ringleader was identified as Luu Thanh Binh, a 39-year-old man who police say purchased stolen cats, housed them at a facility in the northern part of the city, and then resold the animals to buyers who wanted them for meat. Binh and the 11 other suspects are being investigated on theft charges, state media reported Monday.
According to investigators, Binh worked with a network of suppliers who in turn recruited additional people to carry out the actual thefts. These recruits reportedly rode motorcycles through residential neighborhoods during the dead of night, operating between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. in search of unattended cats. Each night, authorities say, the catchers were able to trap between four and 10 animals.
The operation came to an end on July 8, when police raided the network's facilities. During the raid, officers discovered approximately 50 cats still alive and dozens of traps used to capture the animals, according to state media reports. The suspects later told investigators that they had stolen and sold about 2,700 cats in total, though police did not specify how long the operation had been running before it was shut down.
The case has drawn attention to the broader issue of the dog and cat meat trade in Vietnam, a practice that is neither unique to the country nor especially widespread there. Eating dog and cat meat has been documented in various parts of Asia, and in Vietnam the consumption of cat meat has traditionally been more common in the northern regions, particularly among older generations.
That custom, however, has been fading. Growing pet ownership and rapid urbanization have shifted public attitudes, and younger Vietnamese are increasingly likely to view dogs and cats as companion animals rather than as sources of food. The trend reflects a broader cultural change in a country where a rising middle class has embraced pet keeping in growing numbers.
Public opposition to the trade has also become more visible in recent years. In 2024, more than 250,000 people signed a petition calling for an end to Vietnam's dog and cat meat trade, a sign of shifting sentiment among the country's population. A year earlier, in 2021, the city of Hoi An pledged to end the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat within its jurisdiction, becoming one of the first places in the country to make such a commitment.
Some people who consume cat meat believe the practice brings good luck, though there is no scientific evidence to support that belief. The superstition has long been cited as one factor sustaining demand for cat meat in certain communities, even as overall consumption declines.
Under Vietnamese law, dogs and cats are classified as private property, which means stealing them constitutes theft. Criminal prosecution generally applies when the value of the stolen property exceeds 2 million dong, a threshold that the sheer volume of animals involved in this case would appear to surpass. Authorities have not indicated what penalties the suspects might face if convicted.
After the raid, police were able to return 13 of the confiscated cats to their owners. The remaining animals were placed in the care of a nonprofit animal rights group while authorities worked to identify and locate their owners. Humane World for Animals, which provided the photograph accompanying early reports of the case, was among the organizations involved in caring for the rescued cats.
The scale of the alleged operation — thousands of animals taken over an unknown period — highlights the challenges that Vietnamese authorities face in policing the underground trade. Because the thefts occurred late at night and targeted individual pets rather than commercial facilities, they often went unreported or were difficult to trace. Many owners whose cats disappeared may never have known what happened to them.
For pet owners in Ho Chi Minh City and elsewhere, the case underscores the vulnerability of free-roaming animals in urban areas. Cats that are allowed outdoors, particularly at night, can be taken quickly and transported far from where they were seized, making recovery difficult even when police manage to intervene.
The prosecution of Binh and his alleged accomplices is likely to be closely watched as a test of how seriously Vietnamese authorities treat animal theft. While the legal framework treats the animals as property, the emotional significance of pets to their owners has increasingly come into conflict with the residual demand for cat meat — a tension that the Ho Chi Minh City case has brought into sharp relief.
State media did not disclose how the suspects were initially identified or what investigative steps led police to the network's facility. Nor was it immediately clear whether the 12 men had obtained legal representation or whether any of them had entered pleas. Authorities have not announced a trial date.
The rescue of roughly 50 cats during the July raid offered a rare positive outcome in a case defined by the sheer number of animals lost. For the owners of the 13 cats returned so far, the raid meant an unexpected reunion. For the animal rights group now sheltering the rest, the priority is finding the people who may still be searching for them — a task made harder by the months that have passed since the raid and by the likelihood that many of the cats were taken from neighborhoods far from the facility where they were held.
As Vietnam continues to urbanize and pet ownership grows, cases like this one may become both more common and more contested. The petition drive, the Hoi An pledge, and the public response to the Ho Chi Minh City arrests all point in the same direction: a society in which the line between livestock and companion animal is being redrawn, and in which the theft of a family pet is increasingly seen not merely as a property crime but as something closer to a loss that the law is only beginning to catch up with.
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