Thousands of cats who had been spared from becoming the entrées on Vietnamese dinner plates were then apparently buried alive by the country's authorities.

The Guardian reported the animals were discovered crammed into bamboo crates on a truck coming from China. Vietnamese officials impounded the vehicle in Hanoi but decided to crush the cats to death and bury them at the Kieu Ky waste-treatment area near the center of the Vietnamese capital, according to the Daily Mail.

Authorities apparently used a dumper truck to run over the felines in their cages, but many of them ended up being buried alive.

Animal-right organizations referred to the slaughter as "inhumane."

The Chinese cats arrived in Vietnam with no official origin papers and no quarantine, Vietnamese officials insisted, and posed a health threat to the local population.

"Several of them had died, there was a terrible smell that could affect the environment and carried risks of future diseases," an unidentified officer from the Dong Da district environmental police told The Guardian. "Therefore, we culled them by burying them."

The policeman declined to say how many of the cats were alive at the time of burial.

John Dalley, a spokesman for the Thailand-based Soi Dog Foundation, which had attempted to save the animals, said the move represented a "particularly distressing case," especially because a number of international organizations offered Vietnam help in processing the cargo.

"We had (veterinarians) on standby from Thursday throughout the weekend ready to fly from Thailand," he said. "The Vietnamese authorities quite simply refused to give any information or respond to calls."

While it was "commendable" that authorities intercepted cats bound for restaurants, the way they killed them was "not acceptable in any civilized country," Dalley added.

Cat meat, known locally as "little tiger," is a delicacy in Vietnam. The dish is officially banned but reportedly widely available in specialist restaurants.

The Communist government encourages cat ownership in an effort to keep the country's rat population under control, but most owners keep their felines indoors or tied up because of fears they might be stolen.

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