Authorities in Vietnam's largest city have dismantled what they describe as a sprawling criminal network that stole thousands of cats from neighborhood streets and sold them for human consumption, according to state media reports.
Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested 12 men in connection with the operation, which investigators say spanned the metropolis and targeted household pets and strays alike. The suspects are accused of theft under Vietnamese law, which classifies dogs and cats as private property.
Investigators identified 39-year-old Luu Thanh Binh as the alleged mastermind of the scheme. According to state media accounts released Monday, Binh purchased stolen cats from a network of suppliers, held the animals at a facility in the northern part of the city, and then resold them to buyers who wanted the meat. He and the 11 other detained men are now the subject of an ongoing investigation.
The operation allegedly relied on a cadre of motorcycle-riding cat catchers who fanned out across residential areas in the dead of night. Working between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., these individuals scoured streets and alleyways for cats, reportedly trapping between four and 10 animals each night. The nocturnal timing of the raids suggests the network sought to avoid detection by residents and authorities while maximizing the number of cats they could collect.
The scale of the alleged operation came to light after police raided the network on July 8. During the search, officers discovered roughly 50 cats still alive at the facility, along with dozens of traps used to capture the animals. Interrogators say the suspects admitted to having stolen and sold approximately 2,700 cats over the course of the operation. Police have not disclosed how long the ring had been active, leaving open the question of how many families may have lost pets during that period.
Of the cats seized in the raid, 13 were returned to their owners, according to the state media reports. The remaining animals were placed in the care of a nonprofit animal rights organization while authorities worked to identify and contact their owners. The image of rescued cats being sheltered by advocates underscores the emotional toll such thefts inflict on pet owners, many of whom regard their animals as family members rather than property.
The case has drawn attention to a longstanding but increasingly contested practice in Vietnam: the consumption of cat meat. While eating dog and cat meat is not unique to Vietnam and occurs in parts of Asia, it is not a widespread custom nationally. In Vietnam, cat meat has traditionally been more common in the northern regions of the country and among older generations.
That cultural pattern has been shifting in recent years, however, as urbanization spreads and pet ownership becomes more popular. Younger Vietnamese are far more likely than their elders to view dogs and cats as companion animals rather than as livestock or food. The growth of a urban middle class with disposable income for pet care has accelerated this change in attitudes, particularly in major cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Public opposition to the dog and cat meat trade has also grown more organized. In 2024, more than 250,000 people signed a petition demanding an end to the practice in Vietnam. Several years earlier, in 2021, the central Vietnamese city of Hoi An pledged to halt the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat within its jurisdiction, a move that activists hailed as a significant step forward.
Some consumers of cat meat believe the practice brings good luck, a belief that persists despite the absence of any scientific evidence supporting such claims. This superstition, along with demand for the meat as a novelty or traditional dish, has helped sustain a market that animal welfare advocates say is fed largely by theft. Because many of the cats sold for meat are stolen pets rather than farmed animals, the trade creates direct conflict with a growing population of pet owners.
Under Vietnamese law, stealing dogs and cats is treated as a property crime. Criminal prosecution generally applies when the value of the stolen property exceeds 2 million dong, a threshold that in practice can make it difficult to pursue cases involving individual animals. The alleged scale of the Ho Chi Minh City operation — with thousands of cats and a structured supply chain — may make it easier for prosecutors to pursue charges against the entire network rather than isolated thefts.
The arrests represent one of the more significant enforcement actions against the cat meat trade in recent Vietnamese history, though authorities have not indicated whether the case will prompt broader scrutiny of the market. For animal welfare groups, the raid offers a measure of vindication after years of campaigning, but it also highlights the continued vulnerability of pets in a country where demand for cat meat persists in certain regions.
For the residents of Ho Chi Minh City whose cats were stolen, the outcome remains bittersweet. A small number have been reunited with their animals, but the vast majority of the roughly 2,700 cats allegedly taken by the network will never return home. As investigators continue to build their case against Binh and his alleged accomplices, the episode serves as a reminder of the tensions between tradition, commerce, and a society's evolving relationship with the animals it keeps.
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