Illegal slaughterhouses will not get off ‘scot-free’

Stealthy operations even after severe punishment

The local people of Long Dinh commune (Chau Thanh district) recently reports a state of slaughterhouses operating without a license for many years. Among them, the pig slaughter facility of Vo Tan Phuc's household in Trung hamlet is of particular attention.

Every night, this facility works on 10 pigs for sale at Long Dinh Market and provides to the surrounding small businesses. The problem starts when wastewater after slaughter is not treated thoroughly but instead directly discharged into the public water path, polluting the environment and negatively affecting the neighborhood.

“The water source is now unusable due to the direct discharge of wastewater from the slaughterhouse. Only when someone reports to the People’s Committee would they purify the water path, or else the water remains grimy and black with unbearable stench,” says a resident in Trung hamlet.

Through irregular inspection on the night of March 25, 2025, the People's Committee of Long Dinh commune discovered illegal slaughter facilities including the households of Nguyen Thi My Trang (Moi hamlets), Vo Tan Phuc (Trung hamlet) and Nguyen Dinh Long (Khu Pho hamlet). In addition to having no operating permit, these facilities have not implemented the treatment process, stealthily discharged wastewater into the canals.

"The People's Committee will call up the establishment owners to sign the commitment. The second is to study the cases and deliver appropriate sanctions. If it is deemed exceeding the authority, we will report it to the higher levels and let the district interdisciplinary sector handle the cases," said Nguyen Thi Nga, Chairman of Long Dinh Commune People's Committee.

The situation not only appears in Long Dinh commune. In Binh Long street, Binh Phu town, Cai Lay district, there are two pig slaughter point without a night activity license, one from Tran Thanh Phuong’s and the other from Tran Van Minh’s household.

According to Nguyen Van Be Ba, Vice Chairman of Binh Phu Town People's Committee, these two slaughter points have been operating for nearly 3 years. The People's Committee of the commune and the district has applied sanctions and requested these two households to stop operation but they still did not comply.

The reality is that the sanctions of the government and functional agencies are not enough to deter so illegal pig slaughtering is still frequent. In 2022, this situation appeared in Cai Lay district. Many petitions related to this issue were sent to Tien Giang People's Committee.

Through the inspection of the authorities, there were 16 non-concentrated slaughterhouses in My Thanh Nam commune, Binh Phu town, and the communes of Cam Son, Thanh Loc, Hiep Duc, Phu An and Tam Binh. There were only 6 cases, which resulted in a fine of VND 7 million for each case. After pretending to comply with regulations in a short period of time, the illegal act persisted.

"My Thanh Nam commune, Cai Lay district used to have three smuggled slaughter facilities, now only one facility of Nguyen Van Giau surreptitiously operates at night. The commune is also encouraging the household to bring pigs to the concentrated slaughterhouse in Phu Nhuan commune," said Nguyen Van Nhi, Vice Chairman of My Thanh Nam Commune People's Committee.

Concentrated cattle slaughter will suffer when fragmented slaughter remains

The whole Cai Lay district currently has three concentrated slaughter facilities licensed to operate with a capacity of 150 heads/night. According to the Office of Agriculture and Environment of Cai Lay district, the district’s common policy is to resolutely handle cases of non-licensed slaughter so the situation would cease to exist. The interdisciplinary inspection team of Cai Lay district have recently discovered and sanctioned many unauthorized slaughterhouses.

Nguyen Thanh Phong in Nhi My commune (Cai Lay town) has invested nearly VND 30 billion to build a concentrated slaughterhouse to ensure the prescribed standards. However, the existence of smuggled slaughterhouses in the area creates unfair competition. In addition, the appearance of unauthorized slaughterhouses causes problems such as loss of tax source, higher risk of spreading the disease specifically African swine fever, and no guaranteed clean meat for consumers.

The current epidemic situation in the pig herd, particularly African pig swine fever, is in danger of recurrence. The existence of many illegal cattle slaughter facilities should be thoroughly dealt with to ensure people's health and avoid the spread of pathogens.

Delivering a decisive end to this situation requires great attention and enthusiastic participation of the entire political system, especially at the grassroots level in detecting, mobilizing and raising awareness of people in accordance with the State's guidelines and regulations.