(PICTURE: The ceramic dog is safer than the white one.)A couple weeks ago, Huyen and I were driving on the highway at night when a truck flew by me. As the truck went by I heard a really strange noise. I was pretty sure the truck was carrying thousands of chickens. A few minutes later the truck was pulled over on the side of the road and I was able to get a glimpse of the goods in the back. And well, it wasn't chickens. The truck was carrying HUNDREDS of dogs.
As a dog lover, I instantly felt bad. However, I've been living in Vietnam long enough to know that eating dog is just part of their culture. And well, I'm not going to judge them for it.
What I will judge though is a story Huyen told me the other day. I told Huyen that eventually I want to get a dog. Huyen told me that her family had a dog when she was growing up. She said they loved the dog which was named Lou (she said Vietnamese people name their dogs after Westerners: Joe, Lou, Bob, etc.). I asked what happened to her dog and she said that robbers killed her. I was shocked and asked what happened. She said that robbers had come into her house when she was young and had trapped her dog. I assumed the robbers trapped the dog so they could steal things from Huyen's family house. I asked her what the robbers took when they robbed the house. Huyen looked at me and said, "I told you. They took the dog." Apparently robbers in the country break into houses to steal dogs and sell them to the markets. Yeah, ridiculous.
The other day, when driving back from Huyen's parents house, this motorbike passed us:
I couldn't help but think, "I hope these dogs aren't some little girl's pet."
(PICTURE: Lets hope these dogs were going to the pound.)
