"A party without rat meat is so boring..."
C'est bon Dede?
Rat hunters make killing off Hanoians08:30' 19/01/2008 (GMT+7) 
VietNamNet Bridge – Each day Dinh Bang villagers in Tu Son District, in the Northern province of Bac Ninh, slaughter thousands of rats that they sell for at least VND35,000 per kilo. To buy rat meat, customers must place orders several days in advance.
Nearly 100 big rats are the result of 13 hours of field hunting by a Dinh Bang villager, Nguyen Van Phu. “Rats are becoming scarce so I have to go deep in the fields in the neighboring districts to hunt,” Phu said.
Phu’s wife, named Linh, took each rat from the cage to put in a boiling water pot, saying: “Dong Ky village is organizing its festival so we receive many orders. People often buy rat meat for parties”.
At 9am, many customers stood in the yard of Linh and Phu’s house to buy rat meat. “I often call to order several days in advance but I always have to wait. A party without rat meat is so boring,” said Nguyen Van Thinh, the owner of a wood processing establishment in Dong Ky village, a familiar customer to Phu and Linh.
Over 100 rats were not enough for four customers so Linh had to go to our neighbor’s house, Le Thi Tinh, to borrow some rats.
Nguyen Thi Tho, “rat hunter” Phu’s mother, said in her hamlet, Xuan Dai, there are over 100 families hunting and slaughtering rats. When a family has many orders at the same time, they can borrow rats from other families, Tho said.
Le Thi Tinh’s husband, Nguyen Van Bac, is a skilled rat hunter, so each day Tinh slaughters nearly 200 rats on average. “My major customers come from Hanoi. They are regulars so they can order by phone,” Tinh said.
Rat meat can be processed into different cuisines like boiled meat, false dog-meat, roasted, frozen meat, etc. The most favored cuisine is false dog-meat with bread.
Tho, who has slaughtered rats for nearly 50 years, said: “We only take four legs and the body and discard the remaining organs. My family has slaughtered rats for several generations and we have never seen someone get sick from eating the meat.”
In the past, Dinh Bang people sold rat meat at a local market named Chua to serve local residents only, but now rat meat has become a specialty cuisine and is very expensive so it is sold across the country.
“Many families in Dinh Bang support their children’s studies thanks to rat meat,” Tho said.
Rat hunting techniques
“I would rather be bitten than let a rat die” This is the slogan of any rat hunter in Dinh Bang. According to one hunter, Vu Duc Thanh from Chua hamlet, the meat of dead rats is not delicious so hunters always try to catch them alive.
There are many hunting techniques but an experienced hunter named Bac said hunters have to choose suitable strategies for different places. However, the most effective methods are using hunting dogs and traps.
“In the past, hunters often dug holes to catch field mice. That’s why the source of field mice is exhausted now,” said Phu.
If one visits any rat hunter’s house, he will see a big dog. Rat hunters have to buy rat hunting dogs for several million VND but not all are skilled. “I’ve bought several dogs, but only some can catch rats; the others just watch the house,” Phu said.
To have a good rat hunting dog, hunters must train them. These dogs are taught how to smell rats and find rat holes. When they find a rat, they will swish their tails or bark to inform their owners.
“For rat hunters in Dinh Bang, cats are the number-one enemy because they kill our resources. Our dogs never bite rats, they hold them by their legs,” said a rat hunter.
Besides using hunting dogs, trap is the second choice. “It is not easy to catch rats by traps,” said Thanh.
Before setting a trap, hunters have to research rat’s habitat and their paths. “Traps can help catch more rats but they often injure,” said a hunter.
Field-rat meat is the most expensive and the price for a kilo is up to VND50-60,000 compared to VND35-40,000 for other kinds of rat meat. Dinh Bang rat hunters have set an unwritten rule: hunters are banned from digging rat holes in fields.
“We have to use the original holes to catch field rats because they will leave if they smell a strange odor from artificial holes,” Bac explained.
To satisfy the requirement for rat meat, Dinh Bang rat hunters have to go to other provinces like Bac Giang, Hai Duong, and Nam Dinh.
“Our forefathers left us this special job so we told each other we would maintain it. We hope to establish a rat hunting association soon,” said Bac.
(Source: Tien phong)
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