Phu Quoc Island is the largest island in Vietnam. A major tourism destination for international and local tourists. It’s displayed in colorful international travel brochures and heavily promoted on Trip Advisor. Tourists are pushed toward visiting the famous Dog Farm where Phu Quoc Ridgeback dogs are bred and displayed. The dogs are promoted as rare and a precious jewel belonging to Vietnam.

13 minutes drive from the dog farm is one of Phu Quoc Island’s main dog and cat meat restaurants.

Fight Dog Meat charity rescues critically injured Phu Quoc dogs who escape dog butchers on Phu Quoc Island. The inflicted injuries on the dogs are appalling. With their mouth bound tightly shut, the flesh on their face of the dogs rots off, leaving exposed bare white nasal bones. The dogs often have serious injuries over their body.

A Phu Quoc dog we rescued from the island had escaped from being boiled alive by a dog butcher. She was covered in horrific infected burns from the back of her head to the end of her tail. Cowering in a corner under a stranger’s house, she still had the butcher’s chain attached to her neck. She’d broken the chain as she violently thrashed in agony while being boiled. We named her Callie (above.)

We brought Callie to Ho Chi Minh City. Our international veterinary surgeon, Dr. Nghia P.h.D., immediately admitted Callie into his Intensive Care Unit. She was not expected to live but Dr. Nghia worked day and night to save her. Callie was in hospital for several months.

Another escaped Phu Quoc dog we rescued from the island we named Cody. Half his face had already rotted off. Prior to rescue he’d been unable to eat or drink for weeks, with his mouth bound shut by dog thieves and butchers. We brought to Dr. Nghia in Ho Chi Minh City and he too was in hospital for many months.

Trip Advisor on Phu Quoc Island

Trip Advisor minimalizes Vietnam’s dog meat trade. It allows comments which deny the existence of dog and cat meat restaurants on Phu Qhuoc Island. They allow comments which scoff at idea of dog meat existing on the island and flat out say people who say that have no idea what they’re talking about. This is gross misinformation and misleading.

Fight Dog Meat is deliberately not including the street address of the main dog and cat meat restaurant on Phu Quoc Island. A short drive on the other side of the location of the restaurant is the local dog racing track. Please remember that in dog racing in Vietnam untold numbers of dogs break down from injuries or simply run too slow for owners to bother to keep them.

A dog racing track and a dog farm which breeds dogs, and dog slaughterhouses in the middle, close to both of them. Go figure!

Local animal lovers want dog and cat meat removed from Phu Quoc Island. The brutal trade is a stain on one of Vietnam’s most beautiful locations. Seeing dogs and cats hanging from hooks on the side of the road is beyond shocking to international tourists. Vietnam needs animal protection laws as a first step to ending this trade and shutting it down.

Video: Phu Quoc Island’s main dog and cat meat restaurant. Located 13 minutes drive from the famous tourist destination Phu Quoc Ridgeback dog farm.

Fight Dog Meat will continue to bring you reports from dog and cat meat countries and the wonderful work their rescuers are doing despite no animal protection laws. Turning away or sitting quietly does not end the trade. We’ll keep exposing what is taking place to these animals. We’re helping local volunteers have a louder voice on a world platform. Ultimately it’s the voice of the country’s own people whom their government will eventually be forced to listen to, for positive change for animals.

Thank you for reading,

Michele Brown
Founder,
Fight Dog Meat.