Following cheap pork into the slaughterhouse

Illegal operations, purchasing all kinds of sick and dead pigs for slaughter, and using all kinds of tricks to conjure up dead pig meat to deceive customers are the horrifying secrets that the group of reporters witnessed after many days of infiltrating pig slaughterhouses. Illegal operations, purchasing all kinds of sick and dead pigs for slaughter, and using all kinds of tricks to conjure up dead pig meat to deceive customers are the horrifying secrets that the group of reporters witnessed after many days of infiltrating pig slaughterhouses.

Each kilogram of pork is sold by traders on the market for only 30-40 thousand VND. To find the answer to this price, we followed many traders and went to the "capital" of slaughtering sick and dead pigs.

Following in the footsteps of cheap pork

Receiving information from readers about the situation of cheap, smelly pork being sold everywhere, a group of reporters went to many wholesale markets, traditional markets in Gia Lam and Long Bien districts (Hanoi), spontaneous markets next to industrial parks and universities in Hung Yen and Bac Giang to find out. After many days of investigation, we were surprised to see many stalls of pale, rotten, smelly pork being sold openly. "Buy it, I'll sell it cheap, 20,000 VND or 40,000 VND/kg", a woman named Thanh selling "cheap" pork at a traditional market in Trau Quy town (Gia Lam) invited customers.

A pig that had been dead for nearly 2 days was being prepared to be butchered and sold.

Thanh's butcher shop is famous for its cheap pork, so it is always crowded with customers. Most of the customers who come here buy in large quantities, according to the investigation, they are the owners of restaurants and pubs. It was only 9am but Thanh's butcher shop had already sold out. The old Dream motorbike with license plate 89K4-71... driven by Thanh quickly left the market and headed straight towards Highway 5 to Hung Yen. I decided to accelerate and follow this woman's journey. About 700m past Ban town, Thanh slowed down and turned left towards Lo Xa village, Nhan Hoa commune (My Hao, Hung Yen).

Entering the village, the stench was so strong, the canals on both sides of the road were black. “They lacked awareness, were so greedy, they brought the pigs home to slaughter and sell them after they had been dead for several days. Not only that, the intestines, lungs, and stomachs were not buried or taken to the garbage dump, but were dumped near this cemetery. Every morning when I woke up, I had to clean up nearly ten plastic bags containing the intestines of dead pigs,” said Mr. Hoang, a resident of Lo Xa village, indignantly.

Entering Lo Xa village, pretending to be a person who bought dead pigs in large quantities to open a restaurant and supply to shops making nem and gio cha, I was warmly invited by many local people, everyone tried to persuade me to go to their relatives' houses to get the goods. "You just go to Hien's house, she is my brother-in-law so I know. They have dead piglets, dead pigs or dead pig powder. There are a lot, during the blue ear disease epidemic, there were days when she bought hundreds of dead pigs to slaughter and sell", Mrs. N - a local invited.

Then Mrs. N continued: "In this village, many people butcher sick pigs. Any house that builds a cold storage or puts a few large refrigerators in front of the door means that house is in the business of butchering sick pigs. If you want to buy a lot for trading, go to Thuat Hien, Hoa Truy, or Mrs. Nga's house to buy."

Hurry to collect dead pigs

Following the introduction from many sources, I decided to go to the slaughterhouse of the owner named T. The spacious three-story house was always closed off, right to the left of the house was a slaughterhouse of about 100 square meters, with dozens of pig legs and heads lying around, swarming with flies. Seeing a stranger knocking on the door, T looked at the guest with a suspicious look: "Where are you from? What business do you have with me?". When I explained the reason, T glared: "Are you trying to trick me? With such a thick Central accent, what kind of shop is there in this land? Is there any shop here that I don't know? Journalist, get lost or my brothers will deal with you."

After T's resolute shake of the head, I went to the slaughterhouse of the owner named H. After a while of chatting, H laughed happily: "Okay. Take as much as you want. I have meat that has been dead for a few days, or even a week, all meat has its own price, the cheapest is 10 thousand VND/kg". According to observation, behind H's spacious house is a slaughterhouse of about 150 square meters, where there are always 2 employees working continuously all day.

Taking me to see the warehouse containing three large refrigerators, H said that in addition to two workers who specialize in slaughtering dead pigs at the slaughterhouse, H also built a network of more than a dozen people from farms in neighboring districts to report and collect sick and dead pigs and transport them to the slaughterhouse for H. H called this army a system of spies, or pig birds, and sometimes called them "brokers" for dead pigs. "Nowadays, there must be a system of spies everywhere like that, there is no way to get dead pigs to slaughter, these days there are many slaughterhouses with dead pigs so the competition is fierce. Many times I have to call three younger brothers to help, and I work all night and still can't finish the work. There are days when I receive hundreds of phone calls reporting dead pigs," H said.

After a phone call, H sent an employee on a motorbike to carry 4 sacks and did not forget to remind: "Hurry up, the air force of the Truy family will collect them. Squeeze them as much as you can, but if they are not too tight, pay a few more prices and take them back."

Like H's army, the army of the Tru, Lan, and Thuat families also hurriedly took turns to collect dead pigs. The village was always bustling with the sound of motorbikes and small trucks roaring into the village. In just about 2 hours on the morning of May 18, sitting in ambush at a tea shop right at the gate of Lo Xa village near Dam market, we recorded about 20 motorbike trips carrying sick and dead pigs and 3 small trucks carrying pig powder to slaughterhouses. Without needing to hide, many dead pig brokers transported dozens of dead pigs at the same time straight to the village's slaughterhouses for consumption.

A dead pig broker hurriedly transported a truck of butchered dead pigs into Lo Xa village.

In broad daylight

At 12 noon on May 22, an old Dream motorbike pulling a homemade iron two-wheeler truck drove straight into the gate of Lo Xa village. On the truck were four dead pigs with their bellies cut open, lying on top of each other, covered with a worn-out green tarpaulin. Wherever the vehicle went, water and blood flowed down the road, leaving long streaks. Many passersby had to cover their noses, feeling nauseous because of the stench.

Passing through the winding village roads, the motorbike carrying dead pigs stopped in front of a spacious three-story house. “Hoa, receive the goods!”, after calling out, the couple who owned the house, wearing masks and gloves, came out to load the goods into the house. “They must have been dead for several days. They stink like this, how can we sell them? Let’s reduce the price a little.” After loading the three dead pigs with their bellies cut open, the owner gave the man a 500,000 VND note. After delivering the goods, the man continued to transport the goods to the owner’s house named Thuat at the end of Lo Xa village.

When I approached the slaughterhouse, Hoa and her husband were busy cleaning the meat of three dead pigs to put in the refrigerator. The owner put all the legs, heads, and bones in plastic bags and then put them in a styrofoam box. "Don't worry, come here and get them, we'll give you a few discounts. They're all dead pigs, but they're still delicious when processed. I'll take 40,000 VND/kg for the ones that have been dead for a day. I'll give you 20,000 VND/kg for the ones that have been dead for 2 days or more. Take them home and see, they'll make a lot of profit," Hoa said, opening the refrigerator for customers to see the goods.

According to observations, right next to the slaughterhouse of the owner named Hoa are 4 large refrigerators filled with dead pigs. Hoa revealed that half of the dead pigs at Hoa's slaughterhouse were purchased from farms in Van Giang, Yen My, the rest were imported from a man named Khanh. "These days, many large slaughterhouses have sprung up, everyone is rushing to send troops to collect. People like us who both slaughter and sell cannot collect in time, so we have to import more goods from large slaughterhouses. The biggest "broker" transporting dead pigs here is the "boss Khanh" slaughterhouse", Hoa revealed.

Before my intention to get acquainted with "boss Khanh" to collect more goods, Hoa enthusiastically said: "Just call 01677016... Just tell her you are a customer of Ms. Hoa, she won't be able to meet strangers who call."

According to reading the newspaper