Vietnamese police rescue more than 400 cats from illegal meat trade ring

What is the background?

Cat theft feeding the illegal meat trade has been a persistent problem in parts of southern Vietnam, with stolen pets and strays trapped and transported for sale. Cat meat trade Vietnam rescue operations like this one depend on police treating pet theft reports as leads worth investigating at scale, not isolated incidents.

What happened?

An investigation into a spate of pet thefts in Ho Chi Minh City led police to a cat theft ring operating across southern Vietnam. During raids in the week of 15 June 2026, officers found 45 cages holding around 400 live cats, plus four ice-filled foam containers holding roughly 80 dead cats, at a facility used by the ring. A further 21 live cats were recovered at a separate location.

Nine suspects were detained. They admitted to systematically trapping and collecting cats across Ho Chi Minh City and the cities of Tay Ninh and An Giang over the past three years.

How did it happen?

Veterinarians and volunteers set up round-the-clock care at a temporary rescue centre established at a facility run by the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division, treating cats for the harsh conditions they were found in. Several dozen of the rescued cats died despite this care, and several females were found pregnant, with kittens born while in police custody.

More than 40 of the rescued cats have been reunited with their owners, matched through pet theft reports filed before the raid. Karanvir Kukreja of Humane World for Animals called the scale of the operation “a sobering reminder” of how extensive Vietnam’s cat meat trade remains, while Chris Gindelhumer of Vietnam Cat Welfare, who assisted with the rescued animals, described witnessing “quite a lot of tears” among volunteers and reunited owners in the days following the raid.

Why does it matter?

A three-year, multi-city trapping operation being fully dismantled in one coordinated police action — rather than piecemeal enforcement against individual traders — disrupts the supply chain at its source rather than only intercepting individual shipments. Reuniting more than 40 cats with named owners also turns an abstract trafficking bust into a concrete, verifiable outcome for specific families.

The pregnancies and kitten births discovered during the rescue are a grim reminder of how long some animals had already been held before the raid, underscoring why volunteers and vets treated urgent, round-the-clock care as inseparable from the rescue itself.

What were the key results?

• More than 400 live cats and around 80 dead cats recovered across the operation
• A further 21 live cats recovered at a separate location
• Nine suspects detained, admitting to three years of organised cat trapping
• Trapping spanned Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, and An Giang
• More than 40 cats reunited with their owners
• Temporary rescue centre established at the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division
• Kittens born in custody after pregnant cats were among those rescued

What happens next?

Vietnamese police are expected to pursue further leads into the ring’s supply and distribution networks.

Veterinarians and volunteers plan to continue round-the-clock care for cats not yet claimed by an owner.

Animal welfare groups including Humane World for Animals and Vietnam Cat Welfare are expected to continue supporting rehoming for unclaimed cats.

World Animal Rescue Network, which funds partner-led rescue work against the dog and cat meat trade in the region, said it would continue tracking verified enforcement actions like this one. Readers moved by the rescue can adopt a cat symbolically to help cover ongoing care for cats that are never claimed by an owner—the cats stay with local carers while supporters fund their food and veterinary treatment from home. Those who prefer a one-off gift can donate toward emergency veterinary care for animals rescued from the trade.