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| Unwanted cats in India. Photo in public domain. |
Some Indians eat cat meat. I mean the domestic cat and wild cats. I am guessing, but I bet the dometic cat is easier to catch. The people concerned are the Irulas and Boers of in the area of Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, India. Please see the map:
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I thought India was a country that was becoming increasingly westernized and modernized, yet in the hilly regions of this area of India they do something that we in the west find repulsive.
Before I go on I'd like to make one thing absolutely clear. I have been to India. I like the country and the people and I respect them. I am just reporting what I read and see. I am not preaching or talking down to people. I have made similar posts about Australia and USA, for example. It would seem to me that if an Indian person is upset it is because he or she has a problem with this.
Why is killing the domestic cat and eating it by these people so very wrong? These are my reasons:
As I understand it, this small group of Indians eat cat meat because they think that it has medicinal properties. They specifically believe that the blood helps to alleviate pain and is an energising tonic. Sorry guys but that is just plain ignorance and based on some ancient, tribal custom harking back to the dark ages. This mentality is similar to the Chinese who think Rhino horn improves a man's sexual performance - idiotic. I can just see some tribal elder proclaiming oh so wisely to the youngsters how cat blood is so good for your virility - complete nonsense obviously. Sorry to be outspoken but needs must. I owe it to the cats.
Secondly, we agreed (through our actions) with the cat that we (mankind) would be her keeper when she domesticated herself some 9000 years ago. Obviously some people miss this point. The domestic cat is our companion. We agree that. We don't kill and eat our companions. Well, some humans do come to think of it.
Thirdly, the way they kill the cat is brutal and causes pain and suffering. They slit the throat. Then boil the cat and then cook the cat. This is uncivilized. Get civilized, please.
As a world we have so very far to go before we can begin to think of ourselves as civilized. So often I see that toxic mix of human characteristics, ignorance and arrogance, manifest itself in mankind's cruel behavior.
Finally don't misinterpret me. I am not a misanthrope. I like humans and animals. I just profoundly dislike ignorance and animal cruelty.
Update 9th November 2008: this is probably a crime under the Indian The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. Why isn't something being done about it? Perhaps it is a lack of education or plain superstition or simply a lack of will on behalf of the authorities.
Update 29th December 2008: I am just saying that a very small number of people in India apparently eat cat meat. This is not an attack on the Indian people as the vulgar person who made a comment thinks. Please disprove that this happens. Make a comment, certainly but keep it polite please and sensible with a decent argument.
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Comments
You are vulgar and unpleasant.
How widespread would you say this practice is? Do you think that Indians that have immigrated to western countries would possibly practice easting domestic cats? I ask this because I found this blog while searching on google if Indians ate cats. My husband is afraid that a neighborhood cat disappeared because the new Indian neighbors have possibly eaten him. I told him that this was silly since I have had many Indian friends and have never heard of any of them eating cats. I was researching the subject to put his mind at ease and found your blog. I still doubt that the neighbors ate the missing cat but would love to know your opinion on whether this is a practiced in the US as well.
Thanks!
However, people who eat cats in India and indeed China think it benefits them medicinally. Such a belief can prove to be a compulsion and I would not write off the possibility of it happening in the West including America. For example some people from Africa living in London, England, eat monkeys. Shocking but true. The meat (flesh) is imported secretly. These are long standing traditions rooted in almost medieval ways. Obviously very misguided and acutely ignorant.
The answer is I don't know but what we see happening is not what is actually happening. The world is not what it seems.
I am indian and i never heard of someone eating cats in india. Where do you hear these things?
The 'Few People' you are saying, might be some tribals.
If you here someone have eaten human flesh in US, Do you say all Americans eat human flesh?
Be clear in what you say.
I am 22 years of old and i never heard of such thing till now.
Yes people do eat cats in india.
And they are a very small minority ..
My dad did rescue one cat from such people.. mostly these people are from tribes and do NOT represent any major part of INDIA. We cannot say they are from South India either.
Thanks for your comment. I understand it is a small minority and thanks for confirming that.
I am grown up. I just feel that eating domestic cats is not the same as eating livestock bred to be eaten.
Domestic cats are for our companionship not for eating. That is what I say and I have a right to say it without being insulted.
I am grown up. I just feel that eating domestic cats is not the same as eating livestock bred to be eaten.
Domestic cats are for our companionship not for eating. That is what I say and I have a right to say it without being insulted.
I have heard of these particular tribe of Cat eaters from South India they are called the "erkools", and they are low life types.
They just dont constitute the whole Indian nation and neither does this retard who rightly prefers to be anonymouse for he is a scared rat.
I agree that we should be vegetarians. The trouble is we are programmed to eat meat and it is hard to stop doing it.
You could have instead written it as how it's just cultural differences. Some people see one animal as food and another as a companion. They see cows as companion animals, Americans see them as food animals. What makes one animal more worthy of protection than another, when they're ALL intelligent, feeling beings?
But I digress. The point is, if you're going to supposedly write in a respectful manner, then you have to DO THAT. Not say the equivilant of, "Hi there, I'm NOT going to insult you, I respect you very much. But you're a stupid, sadistic asshole. What, why do you look so angry? I was very careful with what I said."
In Tamil Nadu some people also hunt rats and eat their flesh - Please see this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvtUmFDznps.
There are also some tribes which eat Human flesh (Cannibalism) and are called as Aghoris in North India.
There are people in Tamil Nadu who have sacrificed a Tiger at the altar of a Goddess for a Chief minister's well being - Check this link - http://gulfnews.com/letter-from-chennai-jayalalitha-on-the-path-to-settle-old-scores-1.419216 , (Ctrl+F - Tiger, and you can read that paragraph).
All types of People live in India with varied dietary habits and everyone have their own dogmas and cultural beliefs.
However, I am a Vegetarian and I advocate Kindness and sympathy for animals.
If a culture sees the domestic cat as food than that culture is incorrect and needs to be rectified. Why can't you accept that?
In 2014 in the Sudan they are just locked up a mother and her child because she is Christian! She had her baby in jail chained up! In the Sudan that is the law, part of their culture, but it does not make it good or ethically etc. It is a crappy law and Sudan is a crappy place.
You have a chip on your shoulder about colonialism, I sense.
That said some aspects of Western culture are distinctly uncivilised too. I totally admit that. There are some awful people in Britain for example.
We should not be fearful of being honest about ourselves.
I had a Wailing Kitten in my house on 6th May 2014. It was Mewing very loudly. I tried to pacify it and wanted to save it. But near my house there are 3 cruel, aggressive and evil dogs and they killed the kitten much to my horror and dismay.
Here is a detailed account of what happened :
The Kitten started Mewing in the Backyard at 1:30 A.M. night. It was a Beautiful Black, Brown and White kitten. It was running around from back to front of my house. At first, I took a torch and went behind and saw the mewing kitten. It started running near our washing stone and was nicely evading me by going in and coming out. I switched on All the lights, took my camera, a torch and a stick to keep the dogs out of my house. I was not able to catch the kitten as it was avoiding me. I was also apprehensive it would bite or scratch me, so I did not hold on to the running kitten, which was mewing continuously.
I remembered an incident when earlier I tried to save a Kitten near the Railway tracks, its claws came out of its sheath and it almost scratched me.
My Mother woke up and switched off all the lights, Locked doors and I was in the dark. She was not happy with me venturing out in the night, and did not allow me to bring the kitten inside for rescue, as she believes that a Cat might bring Bad luck.
Later the 3 evil dogs came near our house, The Male dog was hell bent on killing and was standing still. I tried to guard the kitten by staying there with the stick, it was continuously mewing loudly and running back and forth.
Suddenly all 3 dogs went to the next road, I thought of chasing the kitten out into its ditch where it was found earlier, but it ran below the car in our house. The Kitten went over the Roof & Terrace mewing continuously. Dogs came back again and sat on a Sand pile beside our house, Kitten was becoming uncomfortable and was mewing for 45 minutes.
I tried to scare the kitten into silence by beating the stick, but it got even more restless and did not keep quiet. It was looking to go outside very eagerly at every opportunity, and I was trying to keep it inside our compound.
Later it came down suddenly mewing, went below the car and went outside. Male dog chased it near Opposite house. The kitten raised its fur and tail and cried like Ooooooo, ran and came back near my house gate. I tried to send the cat inside my house gate by showing the stick towards it as soon as it came back. It mistook me that I was trying to hit it.
I tried to shoo the dogs away, but the kitten thought I was chasing it away and ran into the house under construction beside our house. 2 Dogs chase it into the house under construction, Male was barking for 15 to 20 minutes continuously and was not able to find the kitten. Later the Male dog came out. All 3 dogs chased some other animal, maybe the Mother cat away into the next street.
Meanwhile they returned and all 3 dogs entered the house under construction. Kitten comes out, is chased, rounded up and murdered on the street by the 3 dogs by biting on its neck.
Male Dog eats the kitten.
Early Morning the crow eats the remains of the dead kitten.
Since then I have been very sad and depressed as my Rescue mission failed horribly and the young Kitten passed away to heaven. I believe that Any Animal has the Right to exist peacefully on this Earth, and miserable that I could not keep the dogs at bay. I was an eyewitness to this entire incident and will remain devastated for the rest of my life in deep regret and sorrow.
I know God will Never Forgive me for this failure.
It is a shame though that you could not help successfully. Maybe if it happens again you should take more risks. You could wear gloves and then simply grab the kitten and then ignore your mother ; ) that might not be a good idea but it might be because it is superstitious to believe that a kitten in a house brings bad luck. If your mother was right then hundreds of millions of people in America and Europe are wrong.
I'd like to publish your story on my website as an article. Would you allow me? Thank you for telling me about your attempt to save this kitten. It is a sad story but a good story. May this kitten rest in peace over the Rainbow Bridge.
Absolutely Right, indeed it is a shame that I could not save the kitten, it was a Tragic end to its life as a cat. But I myself as a Human being have never been bitten by a dog since my childhood till date, and it was really painful for me to see my dear kitten which came to my house for refuge being bitten by 3 ferocious dogs and die like an orphan without any support when it mattered the most. I have fallen in my own eyes and even if God pardons me, I will surely never forgive myself as it became a prey of negligence by its mother first and my cowardice later. It was so small it could hardly run and with 3 dogs there was no escape in the dark.
Initially I was so mad with anger that I wanted to kill the dogs, but later realized that Nature has created Cats and Dogs as mortal enemies. I have seen Big cats like Lions and Tigers in zoos and in the wild, and they too kill other animals for food and make a living. Both Cat and Dog are Carnivorous / Omnivorous by birth and I know it will be unjust to judge them since they are animals and don't have emotional bonding or rational thinking like us.
The dogs had fatally injured another Fat Rat (Bandicoot) and that too died inside our compound. This is a Tough lesson for me that none of us are permanent on this earth.
Next time around if such a situation arises, I will make sure to attack the dogs first and chase them out of my road before I try to save any another animal. They are making life difficult for other tiny animals.
I really wish God had not created humans and animals like this where we would kill each other for our existence. I Wish all of us had been non violent, contented and at peace with no need of having food and fighting for the survival of the fittest amongst us. The World would have been a Lot more Better place to live in.
I am a lone sympathizer and nobody else near my house thinks on similar lines and they are least bothered about Natural conservation and Animal welfare. At the slightest pretext they chop the branches of trees in and out of our house without any provocation stating that the leaves are littering the road or touching telephone wires overhead.
Animal and Forest Rights are extremely weak in India and we have few takers for them in a modernized society.
We have had Large scale extermination of Forests and Wildlife during the local Indian Maharajas, Moghuls and British rule in the name of Royal hunting. Poaching is also a serious problem and the Indian Cheethah was hunted to extinction in the 1950's. The Lion was hunted with such disdain that only 20 of them were left in a reserve of The Nawab of Junagadh who went on to Conserve them and build today's Gir National park in Gujarat state that is the Last resort of The Asiatic Lion. These are the only other distinct species of Lions to be found outside African continent and in Asia.
Tiger habitats are no longer found like the past and it is due to Governmental influence of Project Tiger, that the remaining Forests and Tigers of the wild are still alive. Tigers have come down from 40,000 in 1900 to about 1,300 today in 2014 due to indiscriminate hunting for skins and claws and also due to the loss of livestock and humans. Only the Leopard has survived with a better score of about 8,000 as it can adapt and can climb on trees and live deceptively evading human contact. Many instances of Leopard attacks, rescues and release into the wild keep coming every month. Different species of Wild plants and animals are on the verge of extinction in India and many are on the IUCN Red list already. Due to legal and illegal mining we have lost vast reserves of forests in the last decade.
Continued ...
When I was a child then it affected me quite badly as I loved animals both Big and small and wanted to have pets desperately but my Parents were strict and never allowed me to have animals at home. Later during 1998, I saw the Full Black Female cat. It had grown old and its fur was fading and it came to our terrace to sleep. It might have probably died due to old age and health issues, but I remember it being chased as it was fully black and considered inauspicious.
My Mother tells me that even if the cats hair were to fall if we touch it, we will incur sin.
Then by logic the cat must be sacred isn't it? I have seen Indian Goddesses with The Lion & Tiger as their pets and symbols of power. So they must have been revered in the past.
But people still sacrifice animals like Goat, Sheep, Pigeons, Hens, Cocks, Buffaloes and other animals to Gods and Goddesses, don't know why? In our Neighboring countries China and Pakistan almost every kind of animal gets killed brutally and eaten by one and all, and India is no further behind nowadays.
My Grandparents were more generous and they had a small store house behind their home and it had only 1 light and was quite stuffy and dark. There was a White & Black cat and it gave birth to 6 kittens, all of them were mewing and would hiss as soon as anyone of us went near them. Indian cats are quite reserved and unfriendly and don't like human presence and contact till date. They used to run near the dining table and were really well looked after, not abused or humiliated and when they grew up they went out on their own. We had strict orders not to disturb the kitties as they needed silence and solace. Again I found the Adult female after 15 years, it was looking quite healthy and searching for food in a hotel nearby and disappeared into one of the homes in the year 2000.
In the year 2002 a Black & White female cat gave birth to 2 kittens in our house terrace when we had gone out of station. As soon as we came, I saw them hiding in the fallen leaves of coconut palm trees that we have at home. They were really cute, alert and playful. That time there was no dog threat near my house and they fled away with their mother.
So many cats have come to our house, they have wailed in the night, Mated together, Played in the evenings and slept in the mornings and afternoons.
In 2012, I saw another cat near my house. It was wandering in the empty site beside our house (Now the House under construction). The children playing nearby were very happy on seeing it and they started calling the cat as "Mee Maa". This cat was White & Orange in colour and it behaved almost like a tigress with grace and dignity it would stare at us and even had the courage to sit at an arm's length. I saw a Male cat also the same year and it had more of Orange with white patches. The two mated and had a new kitten which the White & Orange cat had bought to my house on November 8th 2013, and I recorded some of their movements. The Mother cat was really angry with me, it hissed and almost attacked me. This kitten was really intelligent and knew how to climb on trees and fences. Later Kitty, Father cat and Mother cat went away somewhere. I have not seen them for a long time.
Continued ...
Please you can definitely go ahead and use this story as a reference wherever you would like to. My Kitten will be in my memories and I will continue to be haunted by my failure for the rest of my life I will be a devastated, sad and hopeless man. I would have not felt bad even if I had failed in my Final examinations at college, as I would get a second chance to pass. But this incident can never be undone and my kitty will never come back alive to me. I feel I am worthless and a waste of creation.
Thanks for the Gloves idea, looking forward to implement that soon. I am also planning to buy a close knit metal cage so that I can cage the kitten and give it to some animal rescue center if the Mother cat is not to be seen around it. Thank you so much for empathizing with my feelings and sharing my sorrow.
Would like to know if you are having cats at home? Where are you residing?
If you have any other ideas to save kittens Please do let me know. My E-mail ID is hshimamshu@gmail.com. I stay in Bangalore, once regarded as India's Garden city in the 1980's. Now it is a Concrete Garden with hardly any trees and less animals (except for street dogs, others have fled the city or have been killed).
Thank You
You have the mentality of an animal loving person living in the West when it comes to your attitude and relationship with domestic animals. You are one of us, meaning people who are tender towards animals and who respect them.
Above all we should respect the domestic cat when we discuss how we should treat the domestic cat. If we respect the domestic cat everything good flows from that.
I think when it comes to saving a kitten from dogs you have to be bold and decisive and basically become an alpha male human being and dominate the dogs and be tender towards the kitten. That's what I would do in that situation. That doesn't mean you harm the dogs, it just means you dominate them so they understand that you dominate them.
Don't beat yourself up about failing in saving this kitten. It was unfortunate and I understand your feelings but we are all human; we all have our positives and our failings and as far as I am concerned your positives far outweigh your failings.
Thank you very much for letting me publish your story. I will do it tonight, this evening and leave a link for you to follow.
I live in London, England, UK. I live in South West London. The main site to this blog is this one:
http://pictures-of-cats.org/
I have a cat whose name is Charlie. He is a black cat and he has 3 legs. He is a rescue cat that my mother adopted and when she died about 5 years ago I decided to look after him. At this minute while I am writing this in bed he is lying across my legs keeping me company.
Thanks once again. I would like to know your Christian name. My name is Michael Broad.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MichaelBroadPicturesofCatsorg/posts
Thank You Sir, It is Wonderful to know you are in Great Britain - The Land of Queen Elizabeth, Home of English Language and Cricket !! Stupendous that you are located in The Capital City of London. Really Happy for you.
I am Sorry to hear about the passing away of your mother 5 years ago.
Sad to hear about Charlie's condition that he has 3 legs. But you are on The Right Track and your Mother has saved the cat and now you are looking after it. You are really Fortunate that you have people surrounding you who share similar feelings.
I saw the cat in my dream yesterday and it was again running away from me. Probably my bearded appearance scared it so much it refused to come near me that night.
I read Tara's heroics in California and was Really Happy what a Female Feline could achieve. I am really Proud of that Cat, Hats Off and a Standing Ovation to such a Brave animal. Wish I could learn from it how to save someone under attack by dogs. It has nerves of Steel and really courageous.
Thanks for Publishing my Sad story. I really Appreciate your Genuine concern for animals.
Thank You
Thanks again.
Sorry to Trouble you if you were busy.
With Profound Grief, I Regret to inform the Death of 2 more cats near my house. On 16th August 2014 - Black & white cat found dead at the extreme left corner of my street.
And again yesterday night (On 6th September 2014) at 12:50 A.M. another Calico cat has been killed by the dogs.
It has started to be a regular affair and now 3 more dogs have come to my road.
The striking resemblance with all the 3 cats being killed more or less on the same day of the month makes me feel suspicious if this is an organized crime by someone whom I don't know or is it a Ritualistic sacrifice to the dogs? I am not sure, as cats are quite rare in my place as they don't get food to eat and in the neighbouring locality we find many of them.
Yesterday night I heard a scuffle between the dog and the cat, the cat was mewing and was surrounded by 4 dogs, when I saw from my window, it was too late, the male dog had again killed the cat in its mouth and it was in the final stages of its life. It delivered 2 more lethal bites on its spine and the cat died instantly.
Is this becoming a pattern or is this the regular animal behaviour ? I know dogs kill cats but now it has started to be a monthly routine of sorts. Do I need to complain to the Corporation about the dogs and put them to sleep?
Do you know of any group of people who deliberately push young kittens to dogs to be killed or is this a type of animal sacrifice? Can Witchcraft also be a factor to consider? If you have any idea of this type of behaviour, Please do reply.
Thank You
Dogs attack cats as a means of survival because cats are competition to dogs when it comes to finding food on the streets. This is why they attacked them and kill them to remove competition.
I don't know what you have in your country with respect to removing stray cats and dogs from the streets. I suspect that you have no system to do it and if that is the case you have to accept that nature must take its course. Thanks again for commenting and I hope you are okay.