No way to stop

Leo said that one of the culture shocks he had when he came to Vietnam was seeing dogs and cats being considered food. “There are families who are willing to eat their own dogs. I can’t imagine that! Dogs and cats are pets, they are not on the food list.”

Although he has been in Vietnam for many years, Leo’s Vietnamese is not good. He mainly communicates in English, and if someone speaks French to him, “it is a great joy”.

About 8 years ago, Leo started his job of rescuing “weird” cats and dogs. At that time, he was still living in Saigon. When he encountered stray cats and dogs, Leo sometimes bought them that were about to be slaughtered, then brought them home to take care of them until their fur and skin were smooth and red, then asked his friends to help him find new owners for them.

Every few weeks or so, he calls the new owners to check on their pets.

Some people calmly said it was gone, some said it was caught, and some didn’t answer the phone… From then on, Leo decided to keep all the cats and dogs in his house. Because of this decision, his marriage broke up. The woman couldn’t accept sharing a small living space with dozens of cats and dogs, not to mention many old and sick ones that were “almost dead”.

Along with it comes money, effort, and time… When the number of cats and dogs in the house reached dozens, Leo almost quit all his work just to stay home and take care of these “little ancestors”.

After the breakup, Leo alone brought his “friends” and moved to almost all the inner districts of Saigon. On average, he moved once every six months. No neighbor could stand Leo’s “big family” when the dogs woke up at 5am barking in unison and within a 500m radius, there was a foul smell everywhere.

Leo’s “family” members keep growing. From 3 at first, they have now grown to nearly 300. Many people ask, aren’t you discouraged by this endless rescue work? Leo answers: “Rescuing dogs and cats is like smoking, there’s no way to stop”!

Leo’s Paradise

The first three years of his rescue career were extremely difficult for Leo. At that time, he had not found any support funds and many people still “discriminated” against this job. Leo paid for the food, medical treatment, vaccinations… for the dogs.

Later, Leo founded the organization Vietnam Animals Cruelty (VAC) with the main function of collecting dogs and cats that were abandoned or even simply thrown away by their owners as normal trash. Through VAC, he received support from a Canadian animal rescue organization, which reduced the financial burden.

Having lived in Vietnam for a long time, Leo knows that Vietnamese people have the concept of “a dog coming to the house brings prosperity, a cat coming to the house brings misfortune”, so he is no longer surprised when he occasionally picks up a whole litter of cats on the street. Leo currently has three times more cats than dogs. “Many Vietnamese people think cats bring bad luck… nonsense, I am very lucky to live with such lovely animals”. Leo even calls his home Paradise.

Continuing on the matter of moving, when the number of dogs and cats rescued by Leo reached nearly a hundred, even the suburban districts of Saigon did not want to “take in” his complicated family complex. So they moved to Binh Duong.

After a few years in Binh Duong, Leo is now settled in Dong Nai, in a remote area without a house number. Every time he buys dog and cat food (usually a ton), Leo has to use a handcart to move each bag from the main road to the shelter (he uses this word to refer to his new residence, it means shelter). The “shelter” has a gate and fence to keep out dog thieves.

During this time, due to health problems (Leo suffered from joint pain due to the effects of the tropical climate, cerebral anemia…), he had to ask two more people to periodically take care of his “real friends”.

Leo has been a vegetarian for many years. He rarely buys new clothes. Even the laptop he is using is a gift from actress Tang Thanh Ha. All of his previous income (from teaching English and translating) was spent on his dogs and cats. Leo doesn’t even dare to travel for fear of leaving his “little ones” at home with no one to care for them.

Every day of “gentleman dog and cat”

Leo’s workday starts around 6am and ends at 7pm. When he wakes up, the first thing he has to do is go to the market to buy food for his “friends”. Leo repeatedly emphasizes this title, calling his cats and dogs “true friends”. The food includes: rice, vegetables, meat, fish, but he only has rice and vegetables.

When he was still healthy, he drove a Charly cuckoo. People at the market were all too familiar with the image of a tall, lanky Westerner leading his short bike through the crowd of shoppers. When he returned, the back of the bike was always full of food enough to feed nearly 300 “mouths”.

Moving to Dong Nai, Leo could only travel by bicycle. When it was sunny, he wore a conical hat. When there was plenty of dry food (for cats and dogs) at home, Leo’s carrying cost was easier.

From the time he got home from the market until the afternoon, Leo was busy bathing, caring for wounds, trimming fur, nails… and cleaning up after his friends. It wasn’t just a few pets, but hundreds, so the amount of work was a lot and somewhat heavy. Leo didn’t consider himself old. Like most French people, at 50 years old, he could still confidently say “Je suis encore trop jeunes” (I’m still very young), Leo believed that he still had enough energy to take care of his pets for a long time.

To save money, Leo learned how to treat most animal injuries. Because each trip to the vet, Leo’s “sick and old” animals cost a significant amount of his already limited budget. Even so, these friends still had to go to the vet regularly because there were many diseases that were beyond Leo’s ability to handle, and they also needed regular vaccinations.

In the afternoon, Leo would stand in the kitchen and cook for the “whole family”. Five or six large military pots boiling in the nearly 40-degree heat were the food for the whole day. Only when the sun went to sleep did Leo’s work settle down, and from then until late at night was the “gentleman’s” personal time.

Before coming to Vietnam, Leo worked as a bartender, businessman and tattoo artist. The only remaining “fancy” habit is that Leo takes great care of his wavy hair. His shirt may be worn out, his Western shoes may be replaced with Crocs, but Leo’s hair must always be neatly gelled and wavy.

Leo’s friends sometimes have internal conflicts. “Fights” are inevitable. Every time, Leo just has to call out or pat their backs and peace is restored. There are nearly 300 cats and dogs, but Leo remembers all their names. “It’s like remembering the names of your relatives and friends,” Leo explains. Leo’s cats and dogs all have names, including Pascal, Bunny, Moon, Coca, Pepsi, Chau, Den, Nguyen…

Currently, most of Leo’s friends and relatives are living in France. “But we don’t contact much, mainly because I’m too busy with “these people”, Leo said. The pets are now Leo’s number one priority. To the point that, when moving from Binh Duong to Dong Nai, because he was busy taking care of the “little ones”, Leo did not forget even a towel or a cage for each “one”, while leaving his own bag behind.

Leo has been a vegetarian for many years. He rarely buys new clothes. Even the laptop he is using was a gift from actress Tang Thanh Ha. All of his previous income (from teaching English and translating) was spent on his dogs and cats.

There are still many people who love animals.

Leo has a Facebook page where he occasionally updates his pets and asks for help from the community. The Canadian organization’s support package is not enough to cover all of the current dogs and cats: 200 cats and 75 dogs. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Leo had to post on Facebook many times with just a few words in Vietnamese, Google Translated, “I raise dogs and cats, I’m out of food for the kids, please help!”

Because of his limited Vietnamese communication, Leo had to rely on a young person in Ho Chi Minh City to receive donations and make the main transactions. Occasionally, animal lovers still sent Leo’s friends towels, toys, food and even money when Leo had financial difficulties.

According to rough estimates, it costs at least 1 euro a day to raise a dog or cat. It costs at least 12 euros to save an injured dog or cat. It costs 40 euros to help a disabled or elderly animal for a month. It costs about 70 euros to vaccinate or sterilize a dog or cat… Therefore, Leo said, without the help of young people and animal lovers everywhere, Leo’s “shelter” would not be able to survive.