Two caught smuggling dogs across Mekong
Police yesterday arrested a Thai man and a Vietnamese while they were trying to smuggle 120 dogs across the Mekong River to Vietnam and found that 31 of the canines had already suffocated to death in sacks.
At 6.30am yesterday, Nakhon Phanom province's Territorial Defence Volunteer Administration officials arrested Issarapong Saenkhampai, 24, and Sern Nguyen Wan, 23, near the Sai Nopparat Pier in Ban Phaeng district. The suspects confessed that they had been paid to take the dogs across to Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the 2,000 or so dogs rescued on August 11 are reportedly dying because of crowded and damp conditions at the Nakhon Phanom Animal Quarantine Station. As of yesterday, only 815 of the rescued dogs were found alive, many of them ill, even though more than Bt20 million has been donated to their cause.
While the dog-smuggling tragedy had prompted many people to push for legislation against cruelty to animals, many of the reportedly 5,000 dog traders started a movement late last month calling for legalisation of the dog trade.
Sawong Dechalert, 58, from the dog traders' group in tambon Tha Rae in Sakhon Nakhon's Muang district, said many of the traders had been supplying dogs to Vietnam for 30 years and wanted to continue, but were being affected by Nakhon Phanom Governor Rerngsak Mahavinitchaimontree's policy.
