Hanoi pilot project – dog & cat meat trade
Government Policy
In Effect
July 24, 2025
Summary
On 24 July 2025, the Hà Nội People’s Committee formally approved a pilot policy programme titled “Pilot Model for Rabies Prevention and Sustainable Economic Development – Gradual Transformation of Dog and Cat Meat Trade in Several Wards of Hà Nội,” combining rabies-prevention measures with a structured livelihood-transition scheme for households engaged in the dog and cat meat trade in 14 designated pilot wards. On 8 August 2025, the Hà Nội Department of Agriculture & Environment signed a cooperation agreement with Soi Dog Foundation and SBCC Vietnam (Vietnam Social and Behaviour Change Communication for Sustainable Development Company) to implement the pilot, which is designed to run through 2028. Core components combine rabies prevention and surveillance; livelihood-transition support for dog and cat meat traders and slaughterhouse operators — training, vocational guidance, startup assistance, and linkages to alternative occupations; and enhanced management and control of dog and cat trading, slaughtering, and associated animal product circulation in the pilot wards. The programme is explicitly positioned within Vietnam’s national target of zero human rabies deaths by 2030.
Background Context
The June 2024 directive from the Hà Nội Sub-department of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Veterinary Services (documented in a separate Development record) established the enforcement framework for tightening controls on dog and cat meat trade in Hà Nội, including mobile inspection teams at transport routes, penalties for illegal trade, and designated “rabies-safe zones.” The 2025 pilot adds a voluntary livelihood-transition dimension to this enforcement context. Vietnam’s national rabies-prevention strategy (zero human deaths by 2030) provides the governing policy frame. Hoi An’s 2021 MoU with FOUR PAWS to phase out the dog and cat meat trade (documented in a separate Development record) established the model that the Hanoi programme references as a precedent for city-level action. Soi Dog Foundation’s broader Vietnam programme had surveyed approximately 200 establishments and trained more than 90 government officials nationally before the Hà Nội pilot’s launch.
The Hà Nội Sub-department of Animal Husbandry, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine (referenced in sources variously as the Sub-department of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Veterinary Services) serves as the pilot’s primary technical and enforcement body. Ahead of the pilot’s approval, the Sub-department surveyed 113 dog and cat meat establishments across the 14 pilot wards: 83% of surveyed establishments reported revenue declines (some up to 70%), 44% of traders had considered closing their businesses, and 67% did not want their children to inherit the dog and cat meat trade. These baseline survey findings informed the programme’s design.
System Impact
System Scale Direction
System Contraction
Type
Changes Scale
Significance
Moderate
A training conference was held for approximately 50 business owners and individuals involved in dog and cat trading and slaughtering across the 14 wards in late 2025, with certificates issued upon completion. By early 2026, nearly ten households had registered for livelihood-transition support and four traders had exited the dog and cat meat trade to pursue alternative occupations following training and programme assistance.
Subsequent city-wide and ward-level communication campaigns, student ambassador initiatives, and enforcement activities — mobile inspection teams, licence checks, hygiene inspections — are documented through to mid-2026. VIR (Vietnam Investment Review) reporting in 2025-2026 documents “plummeting revenues” in the pet meat trade and Hà Nội’s targeting of rabies elimination. High-level meetings in Vietnam in January 2026, referenced by FOUR PAWS, addressed plans to phase out the dog and cat meat trade nationally, with the Hà Nội pilot described as a model for replication to other districts in Hà Nội and other Vietnamese cities if successful. No court challenges, formal opposition, or suspension of the pilot are documented in sources consulted.
Anticipated Effects
If the livelihood-transition programme continues with sufficient uptake, the number of dog and cat meat trading and slaughtering establishments operating in the 14 pilot wards would be expected to decline as traders exit the trade and are not replaced.
If the pilot is assessed as successful and replicated to other districts in Hà Nội and other Vietnamese cities, the model would contribute to broader contraction of Vietnam’s dog and cat meat trade system.
If vaccination targets are achieved and the link between the dog and cat meat trade and rabies transmission is disrupted in pilot wards, the programme’s public-health objectives would advance Vietnam’s 2030 zero-human-rabies-deaths target.
Whether the programme has produced measurable reductions in the total number of dogs and cats entering meat-trade channels — as opposed to establishment-level revenue and exit data — is not established in available sources.
Significance Rationale
The programme applies to 14 pilot wards within Hà Nội’s dog and cat meat trade system — a subset of the city — with early-stage implementation results: four confirmed trader exits and approximately ten household registrations as of early 2026. These establishment-level outcomes are meaningful within the pilot wards but have not yet produced elimination of the trade system at ward or city level.
Key Actors
Hà Nội People’s Committee (formal approval authority). Hà Nội Department of Agriculture & Environment (cooperation agreement signatory and implementing body). Hà Nội Sub-department of Animal Husbandry, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine — head Nguyễn Đình Đăng (primary technical and enforcement body, survey and training organiser). Soi Dog Foundation (international NGO implementation partner, livelihood-transition expertise). SBCC Vietnam (Vietnamese implementation partner, behaviour-change communication). Vietnam Central Buddhism Association (VCBA) and local pagodas (community outreach partners in national programme context).
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