Several species of wild birds are tied up, hung upside down, and put on sale on the streets in Ho Chi Minh City.

These birds are typically marketed as natural and forest birds and butchered for meat, said many Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper readers who witnessed such sales in early December.

“It is pitiful that wild birds are hung upside down,” one reader shared.

“I hope that local authorities will soon handle the situation.”

According to the observation of Tuoi Tre reporters on Thursday, a man and a woman were selling birds near Kenh Xang Bridge in Binh Chanh District. They tied the birds’ legs and hung them upside down.

The vendors used a blowtorch to burn the feathers of the birds that were selected by customers.

One bird vendor named K. sold slaty-breasted rails for VND450,000 (US$17.7) per kilogram and water rails for VND520,000 ($20.4) per kilogram.

“These species are forest birds, so they are expensive,” K. explained.

Down the street from K.’s stall, another vendor sold both live and butchered birds.

Her slaty-breasted rails were priced at VND500,000 ($19.6) per kilogram and her water rails sold for VND550,000 ($21.6) per kilogram.

These birds were netted and transported by motorcycle from Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta to Ho Chi Minh City, she said.

The birds were wild, not bred, she added.

Meanwhile, T., who hung birds with their legs tied on his motorcycle while trying to sell them on To Huu Street in Thu Duc City, quoted a price of VND500,000 per kilogram for water rails and VND350,000 ($13.7) for a grey-headed swamphen or mallard.

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