HANOI, October 5. /TASS/. The Ho Chi Minh City police have detained 12 people suspected of stealing and subsequently reselling about 2,700 cats for meat, the VnExpress portal said.

According to the information, the 12 suspects confessed during interrogation to kidnapping and selling the animals. They are now under investigation on charges of theft.

According to the police, they kept the stolen cats in a warehouse. The authorities are yet to establish how long the criminal group had been operating.

VnExpress said that on July 8 the police seized 50 cats during a raid in one of the districts of Ho Chi Minh City; 13 of them were returned to their owners, and the rest were transferred to a social center for temporary accommodation.

According to Vietnamese law, dogs and cats are legally considered private property, the portal says. Their theft may fall under criminal liability under the article on "theft of property." A criminal case is initiated if the value of the animal exceeds $77.