Entering the slaughterhouse, Khôi was shocked to see exhausted dogs lying next to the slaughter tools. Many tearful eyes made his heart ache. He decided to spend a large sum of money to redeem all of them.
24 million Vietnamese dong for 31 dogs in the slaughterhouse.
Even though it was midnight, people still came to visit Mr. Do Minh Khôi’s house (46 years old, Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province). Since he spent 24 million Vietnamese dong to redeem 31 dogs from the slaughterhouse, his house has always been filled with strangers.
They come to his house with the hope of finding their lost or stolen pets among the 31 dogs that he just rescued from the slaughterhouse. He also receives direct visits, calls, and messages from many people to the point where he himself feels surprised and ‘doesn’t understand what is happening.
He said: ‘I am truly surprised. Because I feel that what I did was very ordinary. I simply thought that I love those dogs too much, so I tried to save them. I did not expect that this simple act could have such a widespread impact”
Prior to this, Khôi had three ornamental dogs stolen. Being a lover of this type of pet, Khôi and his adopted son searched for them together. On July 27th, Khôi’s son went to a slaughterhouse in Dien Khanh district to search for them, when he saw 31 dogs locked in a cage made of iron, about to be slaughtered.
Khôi recounted: ‘My son called me to redeem the dogs because he pitied them. When I arrived, seeing the scene of exhausted dogs lying next to the slaughter tools, I was speechless. Many tearful eyes made my heart ache even more.
At that moment, I was very afraid that they would be slaughtered and could not think of anything else but how to get these dogs out of the slaughterhouse as quickly as possible. So I decided to buy back all 31 of them,” he added
At first, the owner of the slaughterhouse agreed to let Khôi redeem the dogs for 20 million Vietnamese dong. However, when Khôi brought the vehicle to pick up the dogs, the owner changed his mind and asked for an additional 4 million Vietnamese dong.
In order to get the dogs out of the slaughterhouse as soon as possible, Khôi agreed to pay the additional 4 million Vietnamese dong. In total, he had to spend 24 million Vietnamese dong to redeem 31 dogs that were waiting to be slaughtered.
Immediately after the rescue, he took the dogs to his own house to take care of them. Then, Khôi posted on social media to inform the public about the rescue with the intention that the owners of these dogs would be notified and come to retrieve their pets.
“He said: ‘Since I posted the information on my personal page, many people have come with the hope of finding their lost or stolen dogs. However, most of them did not find their pets. So far, only 3 out of 31 dogs have been reunited with their owners’.
“Among them, there was a family of 5 who traveled over 60km to find me and retrieve their dog. When they found their pet, they were very happy. From their eyes, I could feel the love they had for their pet. This made me very happy,” he added.
Such families tried to give him some money as a token of gratitude for rescuing their pets from being slaughtered. However, he refused and said that he was already very happy to save the lives of these animals, which he felt he owed from his past lives.
Considering dogs as offspring and family members.
Khôi considers himself an animal lover, especially dogs. He even feels that he has a debt to this type of pet that spans across multiple lifetimes.
Prior to redeeming the 31 dogs mentioned earlier, Khôi was already taking care of 24 ornamental dogs that he never bought or asked for; they all came to him under special circumstances.
At midnight in 2019, Khôi found a small brown dog unconscious in front of his house. He found a veterinarian to take care of the dog. When it recovered, he posted on social media to find a new owner for the pet. However, no one came to adopt it.
On the full moon day of the first lunar month of that year, it gave birth to 4 puppies. I felt sorry for them and decided to take care of them as well. Later, a few other dirty and hungry puppies came to my house. I fed them and cleaned them, and had a veterinarian come to take care of them.
Especially, there was a small dog that jumped onto my car when I was visiting the grave of a loved one. I brought it home to take care of it. From then on, it paired up with another dog, and they had puppies. It would be a sin to give them away, so I decided to keep them at home. Since I no longer had any family members, I chose to love and care for them as my own offspring and loved ones,” he added.
After redeeming the 31 dogs, Khôi became even busier and more tired. Every day, besides feeding the dogs, he also spent a lot of time cleaning up after them and playing with them. He had no intention of keeping these dogs locked up, so he faced many difficulties in taking care of them.
Due to the large number of dogs and the limited space in his house, Khôi hopes that the newly redeemed dogs will soon find their true owners. In case their owners are heartless enough to sell them to slaughterhouses and do not want to take them back, he will send them to animal rescue centers for them to be taken care of.
Later, when he has the means, he will support these centers in taking care of the dogs he sends there. He does not want to give them to people who do not trust him because he is afraid and cannot imagine someone being heartless enough to sell these dogs to slaughterhouses or turn them into food.
He shared, ‘Perhaps these individuals have not experienced the pain of losing a loved one, as well as the fact that sometimes happiness and great joy starts from the simplest things in life when being lonely.
Nowadays, every day when I wake up, I find joy in small things. I buy rice to spread in front of my yard for stray birds to eat, take care of my dogs, and help and share with those in difficult circumstances that I encounter.
And rescuing this group of dogs also brings me joy. After this incident, I received a lot of sympathy, love, gratitude, and well wishes from strangers whom I have never met before.
