THANH NIEN NEWS (Vietnam) 27 January 06 Vietnamese finds wealth in breeding exotic pets (Reported by Thien Long – Translated by Thu Thuy)
Calling it quits as a teacher, a man in Vietnam has gone from educator to zoologist, successful over the past 15 years in raising scorpions, lizards, frogs and geckos for export as exotic pet animals.
Le Ky Phung is now the owner of Phu An farm in Tam Phuoc commune, Long Thanh district, Dong Nai province, which is home to 117 cages housing some 80,000 odd pet animals. His ‘money’ farm currently brings him more than US$20,000 per month.
Not only exporting some 10,000 to 15,000 scorpions, bull-frogs and lizards per month, Thanh has also sold 5,000 to 10,000 pythons and nearly 100,000 meters of python skins to the US and Western Europe every year.
Phung said he was originally a teacher in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau, but in 1990 he and his family moved to Ho Chi Minh City, earning a living by tailoring and trading children’s clothes.
On a trip with his wife to buy goods at the Cau Mong Market in District 1, his curiosity was aroused by people selling geckos.
He bought four to raise at home as a hobby, and after a few months, he learned that only the eggs laid on the wet ground would hatch.
“That was my first lesson in gecko reproduction,” said Phung.
“In the 1990s land prices in Long Thanh were still low so I bought a large area to set up a farm for raising geckos,” Phung said.
“I began to breed geckos and iguanas professionally after some Malaysians visited my farm and placed an order to supply them thousands of these animals per month.”
Through the Malaysian visitors, Phung learned that many Westerners like to raise these animals and he received more new customers from Canada, the US, Germany and Spain after the US government lifted the embargo on Vietnam.
Phung had difficulty dealing with the foreign clients because he could neither speak English nor use the Internet. He learned on his own, teaching himself how to send emails and draft business contracts in English.
In time, Phung could negotiate deals with foreign clients on his own. In addition to geckos and iguanas, his customers asked for more wild animals as pets so Phung decided to quit trading children’s clothes to concentrate on developing his farm.
As he could not find any documents or guidebooks on methods of breeding wild scorpions, bullfrogs and lizards, Phung had to again learn on his own about the natural characteristics of these animals.
“It took me some months to understand each species,” Phung said. “For instance, the ky tom (a type of gecko) usually climbs to trees at night, baths in lake in early morning and then exposes itself to the sun.”
Through practical experience, Phung has designed different cages for each species, with all his home made ‘terrariums’ flourishing with green plants, lakes, and sand like the natural environment.
Through his own research, Phung has become the layman’s zoologist as he has learned the characteristics as well as symptoms of diseases these animals usually suffer from.
These animals are also very friendly to the breeder so that Phung can play with scorpions or take a loving care of geckos without fear.
Not only a haven for such odd animals, Phung has also turned his farm into a park with green lawns, orchid gardens and a variety of ornamental plants.
His farm, hidden in a beautiful garden, has also welcomed many VIPs such as Party secretary general Nong Duc Manh, deputy permanent Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, deputy PM Vu Khoan and the chairman of the World Wildlife Fund.
The farm owner is currently conducting a project to set up an ecotourism park at the invitation of the Dong Nai provincial leaders after their visit to Phung’s beautiful farm in 2003.
The first phase of the construction of the Giang Dien Eco-tourism Park is to be completed by late this year.
Vietnamese finds wealth in breeding exotic pets