700 dogs rescued from smugglers

Authorities transferred 700 dogs to Nakhon Phanom Animal Quarantine Centre yesterday that were believed destined for dining tables in Vietnam following the arrest of a Thai truckdriver in Ban Phaeng district on Friday night.

Driver Salud Khottakok was transporting the dogs from Sakhon Nakhon to the border in a six-wheel truck when he was stopped. He confessed to being hired by a Vietnamese investor to deliver the dogs to Ban Phaeng Pier, from where they were to be taken down the mekong River to Vietnam.

Centre head Chusak Pongpanich said the latest batch took the centre's dog population to about 2,000. The shelter has Bt8 million in donated funds left, but it spends Bt30,000-40,000 a day to care for the dogs. Chusak urged people to donate more money, food and medicine.