Animal Welfare: Animal smugglers arrested in Vietnam

Police in Vietnam have arrested two men after finding them in a taxi with the frozen, disembowelled carcasses of a tiger and a bear.

The men were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City while transporting the animals to a restaurant, said Nguyen Dinh Cuong, director of the city's Forest Protection Department.

The suspects bought the tiger for 56 million Vietnamese dong (about $3,500), and the bear for six million dong ($375), near the border between Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province and Laos.

"I believe that they are part of a larger wild animal trafficking ring," Cuong said.

Vietnam News Agency