By Calvin Palmer
More than 300 cats in Shanghai have been saved by animal activists from ending up as soup.
A cat lover tipped off the activists who descended on a freight yard and found 22 bamboo cages full of cats waiting to be shipped to Guangdong province.
The activists were able to return most of the animals back to their owners but three cats were found dead and some had broken legs.
“The cats are abused. They throw the cages on to a truck instead of loading them properly. The cats that survive end up in soups at restaurants,” said Lai Xiaoyu, an animal activist.
Restaurants in southern China pay 50 yuan ($7.32) for a cat.
Police detained the cat dealer, Yang Baoguo, but he was released after a few hours without charge. Animal protection laws are non-existent in China.
“There is no law in China saying cats cannot be eaten,” police officer Ma Yong said. “Cats are not a protected animal.”
Yang, who has traded cats for a decade, bought the animals from “hunters” who trapped the cats in residential areas at night.
He could not be charged with possessing stolen property because, unlike dogs, a license is not required for owning a cat in Shanghai, making ownership impossible to prove.
Eating cat meat is a tradition in many parts of China, especially in the southern regions, where some restaurants specialize in cat dishes.
[Based on a report by the Melbourne Herald Sun.]
1 Comment
June 29, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Cat, dog or horse it’s just the ‘other’ meat. Nothing more and nothing less.
Americans and many others need to get it through their hard heads, they do not have to eat these meats but don’t look down your nose at people that do!