Thai authorities arrest another dog smuggler

BANGKOK, January 12 (TNA) - Thai authorities on Thursday arrested another cross-border dog smuggler, seizing over 800 live canines on a Mekong River bank in the Baan Don Phaeng Municipality of the northeastern Nakhon Phanom Province, before they were shipped to neighbouring markets to be turned into Chinese New Year dishes. The smuggler, identified as Preecha Utthasri, was apprehended by the Thai peace-keeping marine authorities working along the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom, together with the over 800 caged dogs on a six-wheeled truck and a boat; while his accomplices fled the scene. The authorities said that they found a slope was made at the Mekong River bank to particularly facilitate the transportation of dogs from trucks onto boats, and that they also found more than 100 empty dog cages which were returned from Vietnam. The Thai authorities assumed that the gang was smuggling at least 2,000 dogs to meet orders in neighbouring countries during the upcoming Chinese New Year festival, telling journalists that all the seized dogs have now been kept at a quarantine facility in Nakhon Phanom. (TNA)