VietNamNet Bridge – The Military Corp 3 on July 31 announced to revoke the soldier’s title of private first class Nguyen Van Quang, who was involved in the torture and killing of two rare langur and posting pictures on Facebook.

Pfc Nguyen Van Quang, 20, from the central province of Quang Nam, a soldier of Company 3, Military Corp 3 in the Central Highlands, has been revoked of his soldier title and chased back home.

According to investigators, Quang and two other soldiers paid VND1.2 million ($60) to buy two langurs. They asked some others to slaughter the monkeys. Quang uploaded some photos featuring himself and other soldiers torturing the monkeys. The two soldiers were served a warning.

At the same time, Ha Van Tu, 37, from Krong Pac district of Dak Lak province has been arrested for investigation. Tu and two others shot two langurs in the forest of Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province and then sold them to the above soldiers.

The two others are being hunted.

Some photos featuring cruel scenes posted on Quang's Facebook page on July 11, stirring up social anger.

The online community was in an outrage of pictures that show a group of young men abusing and then boiling two endangered monkeys, one of them pregnant.

In the images, the men bound the limbs of the pregnant monkey and forced it to smoke before posing eagerly with the carcasses.

Within hours of the Internet posting, animal rights advocates and others criticized the men and called them inhuman in more than 1,000 comments.

The monkeys are douc langurs (Pygathrix), which are listed in Vietnam’s Red Book of endangered and threatened species, according to Professor Vo Quy at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental at the National University of Hanoi.

Compiled by Mai Lan