As Vietnam once again makes international headlines for animal cruelty – its government must now realise the urgent need for animal welfare legislation.

Animals Asia is appalled by the shocking treatment of cattle exposed by undercover investigators working for Animals Australia, documenting cattle being tied up and bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers in non-approved Vietnamese slaughterhouses. It is believed that these cattle were raised in Australia and shipped to Vietnam for fattening and slaughter.

This barbaric treatment follows the 2015 exposure of the use of “flooding”, a practice which involves forcing a hose into the cattle’s stomach to pump water into the animal to increase their weight prior to slaughter. 

Both of these practices are inhumane and cause a significant amount of pain and suffering to individual animals prior to death.  In 2015, Vietnam received and slaughtered 311,523 Australian cattle.

Animals Asia calls for an immediate ban on the export of live animals from Australia to Vietnam, and in the lead up to the federal election, for all political parties in Australia to commit to implementing such a ban.

Animals Asia also appeals to the Vietnamese government to urgently address the inhumane treatment of all animals at the time of slaughter, and to ensure that all animals are slaughtered according to methods approved by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), of which Vietnam is a signatory.

As a member of the OIE, Vietnam is obligated in adhering to the globally recognised OIE standards on the humane transport and slaughter of animals raised for food. If these standards were implemented in full they would protect animals from such abhorrent practices as bludgeoning and flooding.

Vietnam’s lack of comprehensive animal welfare laws and regulations provides little assurance that even the OIE humane transport and slaughter guidelines are thus far being met.

With this in mind we hope that the international condemnation of this cruelty acts as a wake-up call to Vietnam’s government. It comes at a time when Vietnam is considering implementing animal welfare legislation. We urge the government to make any such legislation wide reaching and fit for purpose by putting the welfare of animals first.

Specifically – in the context of the current headlines - we appeal to the Vietnamese Department of Animal Health to ensure: 

• Humane treatment standards for all animals during the time of transport and slaughter are written into decree guiding the implementation of Article 21 of the newly adopted Veterinary Law (effective from 01/07/2016).

• Non-approved slaughterhouses are closed down and operators are punished and animal welfare training programme is adopted for all abattoir workers, coupled with a rigorous inspection process to ensure that acts of such barbarity do not continue.

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