Thai police stopped a pickup truck on July 11 filled with 90 smuggled kitties that were headed straight to restaurants in Vietnam, where they would be killed, stripped of their fur, cooked and served as exotic dishes.

Six plastic cages crammed with fifteen cats each were stuffed in the back of a pickup truck that was riding along in Nakhon Phanom’s Ban Phaeng district. The driver, Sodsai Ampawa, a 26 year old man, was apprehended and told police that he had received around 2,000-3,000 baht ($63 – $96) for each cat nabbing trip he took from Maha Sarakham province to Mehkhong River near the Thai-Laotian border.The driver was arrested and faces charges including animal cruelty and illegal transportation of animals.

It is the first time cats have been saved this way. Police in Northeast Thailand regularly intercept shipments of dogs intended for Vietnamese gourmands.

Police Colonel Nattanon Prachoom, chief inspector of provincial police region 4, said cats could be sold for around 2,000 baht each in this type of trade.

Other details of the operation were still under investigation, he added. The police are looking to seek the help of the provincial department of livestock in hopes to develop the case further.

The police declined to state what fate they had rescued the felines from, however, cats are considered a culinary delight in their intended destination of Vietnam. Though taboo in western countries, cat meat is offered in many restaurants in Vietnam, and are usually eaten barbecued as a snack and served with rice wine. Dogs have also have been smuggled to Vietnam from Thailand for their meat.

With prices that high, thefts of cats have been on the rise. On July 5th of this year, police in Vietnam arrested a gang of six men who were caught on suspicion of stealing as many as 4,000 cats over the course of two years. The men stole between four and six cats each night for two years and sold them in order to fund their online gaming fees.Police gathered information from the gang’s leader, 26-year-old Nguyen Duc Dung, who stated that they had placed baiting traps with pieces of fish left outside of homes of people they suspected of having cats. The crime has been considered one of the largest operations of cat stealing the country has ever seen.

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