The Hanoi People’s Committee urged residents on Tuesday to ease off eating dog meat, saying the popular dish is tarnishing the city’s image and risks spreading rabies, Channel News Asia reports. The practice of killing the animals is often cruel and the city government hopes it can be gradually phased out, it said in a statement. Governments in Southeast Asia are moving forward in phasing out dog meat trade. Last month, Indonesia’s health authority said it was preparing a regulation to ban the trade of meat derived from pets and exotic animals. The decision followed an outcry from international celebrities, who in May urged Indonesia’s president to ban what they call a brutal trade in dog and cat meat for human consumption.