Officials seize 600 dogs in Thai Northeast

BANGKOK, May 5 (TNA) - A group of livestock officials in Thailand’s Sakon Nakhon province along with police and non-government officials on Sunday rescued about 600 dogs before they are illegally sent across the Mekong River and ended on dining table in Vietnam, officials said. They said the rescued dogs were kept in 60 iron cages and left in a forest in Na Phiang subdistrict of Kusuman district of Sakon Nakhon province. The officials also seized 40 empty cages but no culprits were apprehended. Officials said the rescued dogs would be later sent to a quarantine station in nearby Nakhon Phanom province bordering Laos. The quarantine station is now already crammed with rescued animals and the place would have more than 2,000 dogs after these rescued dogs are sent there, putting more burdens especially on expenses for authorities manning the station. So far the law punishing animal smugglers in the kingdom is still very light, enabling smugglers to continue violating the law. (TNA)