Vietnam drops dog meat regs after rabies case

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:

 

 

Vietnam drops dog meat regs after rabies case

 

HANOI--Two recent human rabies deaths appear to have

influenced the Vietnamese government to withdraw a proposal to draft

standards for preparing dog meat for human consumption, and to

reiterate a decade-old but lightly enforced ban on eating cats.

The first rabies victim " had prepared and eaten a dog who had

been killed in a road accident; rabid dogs were known to inhabit the

neighborhood, " reported Heiman Wertheim, M.D., of the National

Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and the National

Institute of Hygiene and Epidem-iology in Hanoi. " The second

patient, " Wertheim said, " had butchered and eaten a cat who had

been sick for days. "

" In early February, " e-mailed Animals Asia Foundation

founder Jill Robinson, " our Vietnam director, Tuan Bendixsen,

received an official letter from the Central Department of Animal

Health, Ministry of Agriculture. Apparently they had received

official requests from various provincial governments asking for

guidelines on slaughtering dogs for human consumption. "

Bendixsen responded by pointing out health risks to those

involved in preparing and consuming dog-meat, " highlighting

parasites, rabies, and leptospirosis, " Robinson said.

Bendixsen in early March was notified, Robinson added, that

the Vietnamese government had decided not to enact a regulation on

processing of dog meat for human consumption.

" Although a local government can enact such a regulation for

their own area, " Robinson said, " usually they will not go against

the Central Government's directive. I'm now looking at getting the

Central Government to officially ban it instead of just not enacting

it, " Robinson concluded.

" I don't have actual figures on dog eating in Vietnam, " said

Bendixsen, " but I feel dog eating is only popular in the north.

There is hardly any sign of dog meat restaurants in Saigon or

elsewhere in the south, and most of the people who eat dogs in the

south are from the north. "

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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Fax: 360-579-2575

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Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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