An example of ridiculous, pathetic human madness in Vietnam resulting in black cat cruelty

OPINION: I want to briefly revisit the Covid-19 pandemic because in so many ways it illustrates humankind's madness. This particular example comes from Asia. In general, you will see more abuses and cruelty against the cat in Vietnam and China than anywhere else based upon my research. You simply can't avoid it when surfing the Internet.

Superstition is a human weakness. It is, for me, a form of human madness. It leads to animal abuse. Superstition is based upon fear. Humans are fearful of everything and anything.

Black cats farmed in Vietnam waiting to be boiled alive and turned into paste to cure Covid!! Image: SWNS.

In Vietnam in the middle of 2020, when the Covid pandemic was perhaps at its height, black cats were turned into paste and sold as coronavirus remedies. I can remember seeing a child eating black cat paste to protect them against Covid-19 (see link below).

Black cat paste packaged for consumption to cure Covid-19. Image: SWNS.

It was reported that at that time black cats were being boiled, skinned and cooked and then turned into a paste to be sold as a medicine against Covid-19 according to South West New Service (SWNS).

A barbaric, utterly cruel and mindless human practice that was centred around the city of Hanoi. The crazy concoction was sold online. They even fed it to a baby.

RELATED: Vietnamese toddler drinks liquid of dead black cats to protect from coronavirus.

There is a video online somewhere which I don't want to even search for which shows rows of dead cats drying out in the sun after being slaughtered as well as a live cat being boiled. This seems to be another superstition that if you kill cats in a brutal way they taste better and their "medicine" is more effective. How mad does it have to get? How cruel does it have to get before the international community does something to stop it?

Obviously, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever which supports the superstition that eating boiled black cat protects you against Covid-19, which, incidentally, has not died out yet. It is still there infecting people often in hospitals. Be aware of that. Don't visit a hospital to see your ill friend unless you really have to.

It's ironic, too, that the cat meat trade which includes the one mentioned above, can itself spread disease because of the way that they are killed; highly unregulated. Pathogens from this kind of animal slaughter can be transferred to the people doing the slaughtering. That's how people believe the Covid-19 pandemic started in the first place.

Like I said, how mindless does humankind have to be before something is done to stop these people.

I'm told, also, that in Vietnam and Indonesia other "exotic meats" were sold at the time as a cure for Covid-19.

Cat Hell Dog Nightmare Human Norm

WARNING: this is about dog and cat meat and the brutality of the business. It's just horrendous. The pictures are from a horror movie only it's real this time. And for the perpetrators it is all normal but got the cats and dogs it is a living hell until they are mercifully killed. You have to click links to see the pics as they are too horrible to have on this page. 

The brutal and ignorant behavior by the humans (sub-humans) who kill cats and dogs for meat reminds me of Putin's behavior in his manic desire to invade Ukraine and the subsequent death, destruction and rape perpetrated by his troops. There is not much difference in attitude which is why Russia is matey with China and vice versa.

It is tough to face up to humankind's weaknesses. People in one country don't like people in another country criticising them. They say "you don't understand our culture" and "what right have you got to criticise". That sort of thing. At its root, this article is not about a country's culture. It is about obvious animal cruelty of the most heinous kind. It is about base human behavior dressed up as part of an area's culture. All of us have a right to criticise that wherever we are. Despite that I will be ostracized by someone, somewhere.

This website never shirks from spelling out the truth. A lot of people don't like that. Humankind is very good at self-denial and finding ways of covering up the truth. Millions of examples take place every day. The current classics in the cat world are:

1. The mass slaughter of unwanted cats at "shelters" while we have fancy cat shows showing gorgeous, purebred cats bred for the purpose. You cannot justify having the latter while the former takes place.
2. Declawing of cats. A modern aberration and horribly distorted human behavior that one day will look ridiculous - hopefully.

To the above two I'd like to add something that is worse than both but which takes place at the opposite side of the world, in Asia. There are some horror pictures below the text. This is as bad as animal cruelty gets. See also cat meat name and shame.

Warning: Don't read on if, like me, you become upset at gross animal abuse. But please spread the word to try and stop this.

I received an email from Ольга Брундасова. I have published the contents verbatim. I believe that is what she wants me to do. I expect that you will find these words on other websites. They need to be.

PETITIONS

Update: these petitions are closed now as this post was written many years ago but it has been updated (see below in yellow highlighter).

• www.thepetitionsite.com/1/meat-trade--dogs-cats/  
• www.thepetitionsite.com/368/stop-animal-abuse-china/  
• https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=2169  
• http://www.ptroa.co.il/petition/  
• www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/395/884/823/

The $2 billion dollar-a-year South Korean dog and cat meat industry, which extinguishes the lives of approximately two and a half million dogs a year for meat or gaesoju, a dog wine or broth, and thousands of despised and doomed cats for so-called “health” tonics or goyangyeesoju, and soup, operates in a sordid and illicit world where farmers and butchers kill with frightening impunity in the most abominable fashion. Dogs are killed with high-voltage electronic rods (which does not kill immediately), hanging, or even beating the dog to death at the request of customers who believe that the meat is more tender and tastier the greater the dog suffers (one of the most pernicious of myths) and that the medicinal properties are enhanced. 

They are most often killed within sight of their cage mates. They are then thrown into a tub of boiling water, often still alive, and then into a rotating drum for the removal of their fur, and finally blowtorched. At Moran Market, South Korea’s largest open air-market for dog meat, dog carcasses are on display next to the cages of live dogs. Cats are thrown into boiling water while alive. At the farms, dogs are fed germ-infested, rotting, and fermented human leftovers, a health risk to both the dogs and those who eat them. In South Korea, dogs and cats’ lives are short and ferociously heartless until they tremble no more at the hands of their slaughterers as cage mates look on.

Legitimacy of dog meat in Korea

Dogs are defined as “livestock” according to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAF). The purpose of keeping them as livestock--for breeding, killing, or whatever--is irrelevant to the law.

However, dogs are not defined as “livestock” under the Livestock Processing Law. That is, they are not listed as livestock that can be officially processed as food. Therefore, it can be inferred it is illegal to process dogs for food, but there is no law expressly forbidding it.

It might be argued that since Korean laws are usually strict in listing what is allowed or prohibited, and since dogs are not listed as animals that can be processed as food, then it is illegal to produce dog meat.

The current Animal Protection Law does not ban the slaughter of dogs for meat, nor does it protect dogs on dog farms from abuse. It only applies to dogs kept in a house.

Tens of millions of animals are slaughtered and butchered in China each year. Animal fur is in high demand, and the Chinese deliver. What does not get exported outside of China usually ends up on a dinner plate. The sad fact is that the animals suffer horrendous torture. They are captured on the streets, and packed by the dozens into small cages, without ability to move. 

They are then tossed like inanimate objects from the trucks, onto the ground, hitting each other and the steel cages. These cages are later stacked, and the real nightmare begins. The animal is brutally pulled out of the cage, and tied to prevent resistance. It is lightly stunned by a blow on the head, but still alive. If the animal is not heavy, the worker holds it by its hind legs, waves it in the air and then bashes its head against the ground. Once the animal is subdued, a new and incomprehensible stage in this ongoing nightmare begins. 

The worker cuts a tiny incision in the animal's rear, and then methodically peels away the skin. This skinning process takes about a minute, during which the worker actively keeps the animal alive, as it is believed that it is easier to skin the animal while it is still warm and blood flows through its veins. The nightmare does not end here. 

The final stage in this unbelievable horror is when the animal is tossed aside, and slowly, amidst a heap of its dying friends, it perishes as it is no longer able to withstand the pain. In other cases, when the animal's fur is not needed (mostly with cats), the animals are put in a sack, and are then cooked alive in a barrel of boiling water.

Back in the day, there was a series of photographs below this text. But the policies regarding the kind of pictures you can put on websites has changed over the years. Nowadays, advertisers don't want their adverts to be in any way associated with pictures which are difficult to view. Accordingly, below, you will see a series of links to these photographs. You remain on this page and will be able to view the pictures on another page where there are no adverts. Sorry for the inconvenience.

These are all brutal photos. Horrible. A complete breakdown in morality. It's ignorance and cruelty.

Image 1 - dog being beaten to death
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Ritualistic shampooing accepted by patient domestic cat standing on hind legs

This patient domestic cat knows what he is about to receive by the look of his patience as he waits to be shampooed. It seems to be a ritual. The cat politely complains but accepts the shampooing. It is very cute because it appears that the owner has done this a lot and her cat has learned to accept it without question except for the faint complaint.

Cat in Asia is shampooed standing up on two legs.

It is unusual to believe that you have to shampoo your cat regularly. In this instance it maybe because the cat is a community cat living outside a lot with the greater possibility of getting dirty. But I think it is more to do with the attitude of the woman caring for her ginger bicolor cat. She is treating him as a child. You can see her washing his bottom and tail as if she is washing the bottom of a baby. There may be a culture in that country to do this. She may be doing it to get rid of fleas. The better method would be to use a flea comb twice per day. Healthier for the cat and more effective.

It is nice that she has this close bond with the cat but she needs to be aware of the unnaturalness of bathing a cat so often (if that is the case). It can dry out the skin and it certainly removes all the cat's scent. If there are other cats who are friendly with this one, they will no longer recognise him for a while. There may even be a fight as a consequence.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

What wild cat species are native to Asia?

Here is a list of wild cat species native to Asia:

1. Asiatic golden cat
2. Borneo bay cat
3. Clouded leopard
4. Fishing cat
5. Flat-headed cat
6. Jungle cat
7. Asiatic leopard cat
8. Marbled cat
9. Rusty-spotted cat
10. Sunda clouded leopard
11. Chinese desert cat
12. Bengal tiger
13. Sumatran tiger
14. China tiger
15. Leopard
16. Asiatic lion

You can read about these wild cat species in detail by clicking on this link.

Here is the smallest wild cat species anywhere and it lives in Asia, the rusty-spotted cat:

Rusty-spotted cat. Photo: Pixabay

And here is the largest, the Bengal tiger. Actually it is not quite the largest. That title goes to the Siberian tiger which is technically in Asia.

Bengal tiger. Photo: Pixabay. The Bengal tiger is the second largest Asian wild cat species
after the Siberian tiger.

Coronavirus pandemic should stop unregulated cat and dog meat businesses

Just a quick note on the grisly and sad topic of cat and dog meat. It is still big business in Vietnam and Southern China and elsewhere in Asia. At one stage Vietnam had a rat infestation problem and believed that the cat meat industry was allowing rat numbers to increase so they introduced a government directive to end 'cat-meat eateries' (Directive No.09/1998/CT-TTg). That law was revoked a year ago. It failed clearly.

The sad and disgusting cat meat trade can expose people to zoonotic diseases.
Pic in public domain in my view.

So there appears to be rumblings in parts of Asia on the subject of how to change people's habits in eating people's pets. It is deeply engrained. How it got to that stage is beyond my comprehension. It is obviously immoral. 

But a reason to stop eating people's pets goes well beyond morality. It is all about human health and wellbeing. The coronavirus pandemic tells us that when humans slaughter animals in an unregulated way in open markets they expose themselves to being infected by zoonotic diseases present in those animals.

Cats are the number one vector for toxoplasmosis for instance. I am sure a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese have caught toxoplasmosis from the domestic cats that they have eaten. They might not know it. They might feel a bit ill persistently. They have no idea that their low level illness is due to their careless approach to animal welfare and their unthinking habit of eating cats, sometimes pet animals.

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that another zoonotic coronavirus-type disease could be transmitted from domestic cats slaughtered for human consumption in a seedy market in the south of China. Surely the coronavirus pandemic must be a lesson to these people to be far more careful to avoid zoonotic diseases?

The Chinese conurbation of Shenzhen banned cat and dog meat because of the coronavirus pandemic. Clearly the authorities are concerned. Their eyes are open to the inherent dangers of unregulated slaughter and consumption cat and dog meat. Others need to follows asap.

A study found an association between Toxoplasma gondii infection and psychiatric disorders in Zhejiang, Southeastern China. This is not far from the epidentre of the cat and dog meat industry in China as I understand it. Is there a link between the conclusion of this study and eating cat meat?

Nature has a way of 'punishing' animal abusers. The pandemic is the paradigm example. Abuse nature and nature will strike back. If they can't stop eating cat and dog meat for reasons of morality then do it in the interests of human health.

Nature has taught humankind a lesson. Some Asians refuse to learn the lesson and digest it.

Picture and video of TikTok chonky tabby cat

Do you think this is fun? I find the music a bit harsh. Actually I find the music very harsh and the whole video a bit gross really but I'm out of touch with the rest of the world, it seems to me. I'm sure the video is pretty popular. I don't know whether to be serious or jokey. This is meant to be a fun video. So I'm not meant to be serious about it, but look at the size of the cat. 

This is an obese cat and the owner has allowed this cat to become obese. We have to criticise the owner therefore. This kind of obesity is going to lead to health problems. You can't really in all good conscience make a funny cat video out of a cat's health problems. Can you? Is this part of the modern day trend of making very short funny cat videos based on cat abuse. Am I being too critical? Is that a misconception? 

Perhaps I just don't see the world like other people see it. I certainly don't see the world in the same way that a lot of young people in Asia see it. I think this video is from Asia where arguably there is a different attitude towards animals and the human-to-cat relationship. I would love people to comment tell me what they think about it.

TikTok chonky tabby cat. Screenshot.

Cruelty to Cats

Why is there cruelty to cats? Where does this desire originate in the mind of humans? It seems difficult to imagine how someone can be cruel bearing in mind the fact that humans have the ability to empathize with other animals. 

In other words, we understand that if we are cruel and cause suffering the animal will feel pain. This should be a form of resistance to causing pain. For some if is not. 

Clearly if the person thinks that the cat (or obviously any animal) does not feel pain then there can be neither empathy nor cruelty. That is (at least in part) why some Chinese and Koreans kill cats so brutally and eat them (this is not a racist remark. 

It is a rational statement commenting on a country's culture). But cat cruelty is also frequently encountered in the West, in countries such as the UK and USA, countries where there are a lot of animal and cat lovers. Here are two cases; one killed the cat by punching and drowning and the other man killed a neighbor's cat by sealing the cat in plastic bags and throwing the weighted bag into a canal. 

 What is going through the head of people from these countries when they are cruel to cats? They are getting a "high" on an endorphin (or endorphin) rush when they are cruel. When endorphins are released in the brain, we feel better. This is the reward, feeling better. Why should people get an endorphin rush from cruelty to animals? 

Because being cruel is closely associated with the innate predatory exploits of mankind. Many thousands of years ago (and still today in certain parts of the world) in order to survive humans had to hunt and kill. Successful hunting produces an endorphin rush. The kill, the blood and the side effects of hunting are associated with the release of endorphins. 

It is the pleasure from this release that helps to drive us. We get the overlap between the reward of feeling better for successfully killing an animal to survive and the step further for causing pain, a by product of killing. 99% of us rationalize this and control it. 

Those of us who are living more on their instincts due to a lack of education or poor upbringing or poor experiences step over the barrier and cause pain to cats through cruelty without compunction and take pleasure in the act. 

In Britain causing unnecessary suffering to cats (and other proscribed animals) is, under a successful prosecution, punishable by imprisonment for a maximum of 51 weeks and/or a maximum fine of £20,000 under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. One last point but an important point. In the USA 20 million cats have been declawed. 

This is a legal procedure in the USA even though 99% of the time it is carried out for non-therapeutic purposes. This is cruelty to cats by veterinarians. Shocking but true. Only one place has banned it: West Hollywood, California.

Cat Meat Philosophy

When I say cat meat philosophy, I mean the philosophical arguments that makes the market in cat meat unethical and fundamentally wrong. One reason why some people find the concept of cat meat acceptable is grounded in Christianity and the Bible. 

The Bible is really a book that is full of "holes", meaning erroneous statements. It was written hundreds of years after the events. In Genesis, it is declared that God gave humans dominion over animals. This is a poor starting point in the proper treatment of our fellow creatures. It fosters arrogance towards animals and cats (my area of interest). We are only just emerging from the shackles of the unenlightened culture fostered by religion. Christianity is fading in the West. Churches are gradually becoming empty and being converted to apartments. 

I believe that in 5,000 years' time the world will look back at religion as an anomaly in mankind's evolution. It is not a helpful concept in the long term. Religion does though make life more bearable but only in a crude psychological way. Religious fundamentalism is a pathetic and ignorant throwback to times past and is highly unhelpful generally although it may make life better for those who practice it because it artificially simplifies life. Then we have the concept of sentience. Are other animals (meaning animals other than humans) sentient? 

Jeremy Bentham a well-known English philosopher argued that the ability of an animal to suffer must be the measure by which we treat other animals. It is not a question as to how intelligent other animals are. In any case "intelligence" is a wide term. Cats are more "intelligent" in some areas than humans. 

In addition, and for example, other animals such as apes have been found to have better memories than undergraduates. We are only recently beginning to realise that other animals have real qualities the equal of ours. We are coming out of the fog of the arrogant belief that we are superior and have "dominion" over animals. Clearly it cannot be argued that cats cannot suffer as they are similar to humans anatomically. That is why humans use cats in animal testing. Cats have brains and nerves. They obviously feel pain. 

They are not vegetables as some Chinese think. We can converse more easily with a cat than with a small baby. As for the apes it really is possible to converse with them. How can animals generally not be sentient. Lastly, we have a kind of social contract with cats. OK it is not the social contract that exists between humans. By social contract I mean the underlying agreement between humans under which we interact in a socially acceptable manner. 

 I have said it before but we have a special relationship with cats and dogs; we live with them. This is unusual for humans. We get on better with cats and dogs than with other humans sometimes. We agreed to live with cats as companions. OK not all humans agreed that but it has become accepted by all of us over the 9,000 years of domestication. 

We renege on that contract if we brutally kill cats and eat them.