VietNamNet Bridge – For the last one or two months, many Hanoians have been hurriedly looking for the places where they can leave cats and dogs when they are away on Tet holiday.

Two months ago, Tran Cam Van, an office worker who lives on Minh Khai Street in Hanoi, accessed to webtretho website to ask for information about pet keeping service. Van and her husband are working in Hanoi, but their relatives all live in Thanh Hoa province. Therefore, they have to leave for Thanh Hoa to celebrate Tet.

Van complained that she cannot bring the Spanish dog her husband has bought with herself to Thanh Hoa. Therefore, she has to find a good pet keeping service provider.

Tran Do Quynh, who lives in Kim Giang residential quarter, said that her family’s members have decided to travel abroad on Tet days. Meanwhile, the lovely dog and the Persian cat of the family would be taken care by another person at another house which Quynh has found.

Quynh said that she does feel secure if asking someone else to take care for the pets on Tet days. Therefore, it would be better to leave the pets at professional service providers.

However, Quynh said, the services are very expensive. “I have to spend 3 million dong for a dog and a cat for 10 days,” she complained.

In Vietnam, a person would be considered as high income earner if he has the monthly income of 10 million dong. Meanwhile, the average income of the workers in industrial zones is 2.5-3 million dong a month.

In Hanoi, the Nam Ngu Veterinary Center has been well known as the biggest and professional center. The owner of the center showed the reporters a big dog which he said is sourced from Tibet. The cruel dog has been reportedly bought at 100 million dong, while the owner of the dog has registered to leave the dog at the center for five days.

The owner of the veterinary center led the reporters to the houses of the pets. The whole third floor of a big building has been reserved for the dogs. More than 10 dogs barking aggressively when strangers entered. Three big dogs were kept in separated cages, while the other two or three small ones shared the same cage. There is one electrical heating equipment installed at every cage, which turned on all the day which helped keep the room temperature stable.

The owner of the center is the person who directly takes care for the pets. He said that this is for the fifth consecutive year he provides the service. Before getting retired, he worked for a veterinary agency.

He went on to say that the number of pets kept at his center has been increasing year after year. In 2011, his center kept 120 pets on Tet days. The number of servicemen has also been increasing accordingly.

An area of 400 square metres which 10 rooms has been reserved to serve the pets. There are eight technicians or veterinary surgeons, who are capable to take care for 150 pets. To date, the center has received 60 pets.

The pet keeping service appeared several years ago, but it has been developing very strongly.

Bao Sinh, the owner of the pet hotel on Truong Dinh Street in Hoang Mai district in Hanoi, said that his hotel keeps busy all the days. However, the service fees on Tet days are always 50 percent higher than ordinary days because of the higher demand.

Sinh said that the service fee is some 150,000 dong per day on ordinary days. Meanwhile, the fee would be 250,000 dong per day on Tet days. These are the fees for “popular guest houses”. Meanwhile, if people want their pets to receive special care service, they would have to hire hotels for the pets, and pay 1-1.5 million dong per day.

The “pet kingdom” also has a 5-star hotel. This is a very luxurious one with lift, swimming pond, other function rooms and the area for the dogs to walk.

Thai Hung