Vietnam Buries Thousands of Cats Alive

Police in Hanoi have buried thousands of cats, many believed to be alive, after seizing them from smugglers. The cats were being smuggled into China to be sold into the country’s illegal cat-meat trade. They were seized from a truck that had three tons of live cats shoved into bamboo crates. They were buried in accordance with Vietnamese law regarding smuggled goods, a police officer said. “The cats were from China, with no official origin papers and no quarantine,” a policeman said. “Several of them had died. There was a terrible smell that could affect the environment and carried risks of future diseases.... Therefore, we culled them by burying them,” he said, declining to confirm how many were alive at the time of burial.