Retired hairdresser Nguyen Thi Kim Quy is an anomaly as she navigates Hanoi’s bustling streets in a dressed-up motorbike pulling a tuk-tuk, with 13 multi-colored rescue dogs in tiny Christmas outfits yapping away happily inside.
An estimated 5 million canines are consumed each year across Vietnam, where dog meat is considered a delicacy.
However, the Southeast Asian nation is trying to phase out consumption that is second only to China.
Photo: AFP
Quy, 71, has devoted her retirement to rescuing homeless pooches so they do not wind up on dinner plates — or beaten — and spends much of her monthly stipend from her relatives on the cause.
“It would be disastrous if they would be sent to the slaughterhouse. I really couldn’t bear it,” Quy said.
“Eating dog or cat meat, for me, is a crime,” she added.
Quy said she thinks the culture is changing slowly, and more Vietnamese are adopting dogs as pets and companions.
“I think Hanoi residents have become friendlier to pets, turning away from their habit of considering dog meat a delicacy,” she said.
Quy wakes early to take the dogs for a morning walk, and is sometimes still combing the streets befriending strays as night falls.
Quy dyes the dogs’ fur and dresses some up in Santa and reindeer costumes for festive cheer as the temperature drops over the winter months.
Her motorbike of mutts has become a popular sight on Hanoi’s streets, with many commuters stopping to pose for social media photos.
“They have very bright smiles and sometimes they even give gifts to the dogs,” Quy said. “They love these dogs very much.”
She believes that pets “bring peace, sweep away sadness and hardship.”
“To me, the dog is like a friend, a true friend,” Quy said. “If I could, I would give care to all the abandoned and abused dogs.”
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS