A family in Thai Nguyen Province, northern Vietnam on Wednesday voluntarily handed over six tigers they had kept in captivity for nearly 20 years to the Hanoi Wild Animal Rescue Center in Hanoi.

The Thai Nguyen Department of Forest Protection and its subordinate in Thai Nguyen City of the namesake province coordinated with the Hanoi Department of Forest Protection and the Hanoi Wild Animal Rescue Center received the six tigers from the family of Nguyen Khac Thuong, residing in Thinh Dan Commune, Thai Nguyen City.

The six tigers would be sent to the Hanoi Wild Animal Rescue Center for further care.

The prime minister on April 4, 2007 gave his nod to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s proposal to assign tigers illegally kept in captivity to households allowed to pilot the raising of tigers for preservation after detecting unlawful tiger raising establishments in southern Binh Duong Province.

The authorities in Thai Nguyen in 2007 also detected Thuong’s illegal captive tiger facility and fined his family.

The province later asked the family to continue raising the tigers.

"I've raised these tigers for nearly 20 years and love them a lot," Thuong said.

"However, due to my current health and economic problems, I decided to transfer them to the local authorities in the hope that they will receive good care.”

Four tigers were transported to Soc Son District, Hanoi at 1:30 pm on Wednesday.

The Hanoi Wild Animal Rescue Center was employing measures to take the two remaining tigers to vehicles and expected to finish the transport on Thursday.

With these six tigers, the center will be home to a total of 41 tigers.

Tigers are a rare and endangered species of wildlife receiving the highest level of protection," said Luong Xuan Hong, director of the Hanoi Wild Animal Rescue Center.

In order to rear tigers for education or conservation purposes, it is imperative to ensure appropriate expertise, infrastructure, techniques, veterinary care, and animal welfare measures.

In nature, tigers typically move within a radius of 20-30 kilometers. The captivity of tigers may result in the loss of their natural habitats and violate the law.

Registered private facilities across Vietnam have kept more than 300 tigers in captivity as of April this year, an almost six-fold increase over the figure documented in 2007, at over 50 individuals, according to the Education for Nature – Vietnam.

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