In an act of solidarity with their fellow villagers, hundreds have signed a petition confessing to the murder of 2 suspected dog thieves who were caught and beaten to death on August 27 in the Hiep Hoa District of Bac Giang province.

While police charged seven people in connection with the murder, they acknowledged that hundreds were involved in the assault. Over 800 villages signed a petition saying that they took part in the fatal act and that it was wrong to charge only seven people.

The two victims were caught stealing residents’ pet dogs and join 13 others who have been beaten to death this year for the same offence.

According to Ngoc Long, chief of Hiep Hoa District police department, "Villagers are unhappy because according to the law, dog thieves are not punished criminally but administratively."

This is just one level of Vietnam’s complex dog trade which, at its worst, involves smuggling thousands of dogs in inhumane conditions across international borders to meet local demand for the animal’s meat.

[Bangkok Post // Image via Going Slowly]