Many bird sellers in HCM City are making unethical profits during the Vu Lan Festival by harming the birds they sell so they can quickly find and resell them to other customers.
Bird traders stationed near pagodas
Animal releasing is an important ceremony on most Vietnamese traditional holidays and festivals. This practice is expected to communicate the importance of valuing life as well as help people develop compassion and kindness toward others.
During this year's Vu Lan Festival, many people flock to the pagodas to release captured animals and to pray for the well-being of their families.
People release the birds during Vu Lan Festival
Taking advantage of this situation, several people went out to the fields on the outskirts of the city, or in neighbouring provinces of Tay Ninh and Long An, to catch sparrows and set up shops near the pagodas of Vinh Nghiem, Pho Quang or Giac Lam in HCM City, in order to sell the birds later.
However, the matter got worse when they cut the birds' wings and tails and even fed drugs to the birds so they would be unable to fly.
Captured birds
Customers were surprised when birds fell right to the ground as soon as they opened the cage. These birds will then be re-captured and sold to another customer. After being re-sold multiple times, some birds were exhausted and died on the ground right in front of the customers.
At the price of VND15,000 for one bird, some traders can make tens of millions on a busy day.
Sparrows can only walk after being released
Sau, a bird-seller, said she was hired for VND300,000 a day (USD14), to sell the birds. Once the birds are sold out, someone else will come by to give her another cage-full. The real owners rarely appears because they are busy with other hired hands.
Many people were angered at such profiteering activities, saying the traders have blackened a sacred festival. These birds are continually captured for the releasing ceremony. Meanwhile, other opinions pointed out that many people did not truly understand the meaning of the ceremony so they unsuspectingly help the bird traders make profits.
