The meat was kept at a store while 480 cats were found in a truck at the house of Nguyen Huy Quyen, 39, in Lai Vung District following a check by the police on February 16.
Quyen failed to show a hygiene certificate and as well as required documents showing the origins of the meat.
A representative of the slaughterhouse said that the frozen cat meat was from some 2,000 cats which they bought from Mekong Delta provinces. After slaughtering and freezing, they were going to sell the meat to partners in the north to make medicine glue. Meanwhile, the 480 live cats would be sold to restaurants in HCM City.
Police seized and destroyed the frozen cat meat. They also asked Quyen to monitor the 480 cats and vaccinate them before they were transported.
Talking about the case, head of Dong Thap Provincial Animal Husbandry Department, Vo Be Hien, said that the slaughterhouse of Nguyen Huy Quyen was not authorised to butcher cats, but they would be allowed to transport them once it secures the papers to do so.
