Ho Chi Minh City tenement residents wrangle over keeping pets

The practice of keeping pets in apartments has also marred neighborly ties.

A notice seen in an elevator at Phu Thanh Tenement, located in Tan Phu District, informs inhabitants of a ban on keeping pets, explaining that the animals often bark noisily and stain corridors with their feces and urine.

The fierce-looking, furiously barking canines also scare young children out of their wits and pose a menace to minors.

Many parents have no choice but to lock their children in to ensure their safety.

The tenement administrators also ruled that violating households take their pets out of the tenement without any delay.

Nguyen Quyet Thang, head of the tenement’s D Block, told Tuoi Tre(Youth) newspaper that its residents have not kept dogs or cats over the past several years.

Two or three new households who recently moved in, however, have stuck to their practice of keeping pets and allowed them to run about unleashed, which has triggered strong reactions from their neighbors.

Similarly, many dwellers at the Khai Minh Tenement in District 3 have also been exasperated by their four dog-keeping neighbors over the past year.

An inhabitant said they have repeatedly filed complaints at the local People’s Committee, to little avail.

“The dogs are behind many squabbles which have considerably eroded our neighborly relationship,” that person added.

Vu Trong Hop, deputy head of one of Khai Minh Tenement’s divisions, told Tuoi Tre that they have tried to talk the dog keepers into sending their animals away, but most of them insisted they love the canines as much as their own children and thus cannot simply give up on them.

The owners have promised to keep their dogs in to ensure hygiene and safety in the neighborhood.

Some have even committed to train their dogs into non-barkers.

Two dogs are pictured drying out their coats on the balcony of an apartment at My Thuan Tenement, situated in District 8.
Photo: Ngoc Hanh/Tuoi Tre News

N.T.H.P, a dweller at Khai Minh Tenement, keeps four dogs in her apartment.

She said she always makes a point of having her pets vaccinated against rabies every year, and minimizing troubles they may cause for her neighbors.

However, her efforts have failed to allay many residents’ vexation.

“The tenement management board did not inform me of their rule against keeping pets when I purchased the apartment. Now that many have voiced their fury, I’m trying to find my dogs new homes,” she said.

According to Le Duc Thanh, deputy chair of the Ward 8 People’s Committee in District 3, officials have talked to pet-keeping households at Khai Minh Tenement, who then promised to send the animals away.

The committee has also made clear a regulation released by the district People’s Committee which bans keeping or allowing dogs or cats to roam unleashed within tenements.

Meanwhile, other tenements neither ban nor encourage their residents to have pets.

Driven by incessant complaints filed by many residents, the administration board of HAGL Gold House Tenement, located in the outlying district of Nha Be, regulated that pet keepers register their pets, vaccinate them against rabies regularly, and not let them out on the loose.

Dogs must have leashes and muzzles on while being walked in public space and are not allowed to defecate or urinate in such areas.

Violating households will have their electricity and tap water supplies cut or be fined between VND200,000 (US$9) and VND1 million ($44).

Nguyen Xuan Truong, head of the HAGL Gold House’s management board, said his board had earlier banned its residents from keeping pets.

However, as several households insisted on keeping pets, the board finally decided to reconcile their appeal and responsibility.

Thuy, a resident, explained that many families find keeping pets a long-standing, rewarding hobby and even a source of solace which cannot be dispensed with overnight.

However, she admitted keepers should be bound by certain responsibilities to keep trouble at bay.