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Two Vietnamese were arrested for animal trafficking after two live
tigers were found sedated in the back seat of a car and four dead
cats were found frozen in a home, state media reported Wednesday.
Nguyen Thuy Mui, 48, and Nguyen Quoc
Truong, 43, were detained Monday after the two tigers were
confiscated, the Thanh Nien daily report said.
Police found the animals sedated in the
car en route from the capital, Hanoi, to nearby Ha Dong City.
Police later discovered four frozen tigers in Truong's house, the
biggest one weighing 330 pounds.
Truong told police he had bought the
tigers from a Hanoi zoo. The animals were to be processed into
expensive traditional medicines that many believe will cure a
number of ailments, the newspaper said.
Ngo Ba Oanh, the director of a rescue
center in Hanoi, told The Associated Press that the tigers were in
good condition.
Mui apparently raised the two live tigers
from cubs in her house after buying them six months ago for
$14,600. She agreed to sell them to Truong for $40,000.
Vietnam's tiger population has
dramatically declined since the Vietnam War ended in 1975 because
of shrinking natural habitats and poaching.
About 100 tigers live along Vietnam's
borders with Laos and Cambodia, down from thousands before the end
of the war, according to the Forestry Department.
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