China's Ora Good Cat electric vehicle is ideal for cat lovers and environmentalists

It's coming to Europe and I would hope that it is coming to America. It is a good looking EV (electric vehicle) from China called the Ora Good Cat, which is an interesting name. I've decided that it is a name designed to attract people who like cats and who live with them. And the classic profile of that kind of person is a woman, specifically an independent-minded woman concerned about the environment and therefore in the market to buy a compact EV 😊. In a woke age of strict equality we can't exclude cat-loving men either! Although the design is so obviously targeted at women.

Ora Good Cat EV from China. Manufacturer: Great Wall Motors.

And if the marketing bumf is to be believed then this is a good EV. The biggest worry about EV is the mileage on one charge.

They say that the car does 501 km or 311 miles on one charge. I think you could sensibly reduce that to about 250 miles on one charge under real-life circumstances which includes putting on the air conditioning under cold and hot weather conditions. And the amount of miles you get from an EV depends on how you drive it. You have to drive EVs differently to standard petrol and diesel cars.

RELATED: Woman recovers the bodies of cats hit by cars and reunites them with their owners

I would expect that this car has a breaking charging system. This is a gear you can select so that the car breaks when you lift your foot off the accelerator. And in breaking it charges the battery. You let the car slow itself down without using the brakes. It takes a little while to adjust. But it substantially increases the mileage you obtain on one charge of the battery.

RELATED: Friendly reminder to tap your car hood before starting the engine!

As mentioned (twice already 😕) the car is designed with women in mind in my opinion. It's quite compact which is why I'm surprised at the extent of the mileage they say can achieve. Batteries are big and heavy which is why EV's with a long-range are big cars. They are too big for the average motorist in my view.

This car is described as a 'subcompact' and it is made by Great Wall Motors under its electric vehicle brand, ORA, since November 24, 2020. I believe that it is already on sale in Thailand where it has caused a stir. The date of this post is November 27, 2021.

The design is retro which is popular. Sales formally began on November 24, 2020. It's quite a quick car because the electric motor develops 143 hp. That will mean that the car is quite nippy.

China taking a more respectful and humane approach to domestic cats who might be infected with Covid

This is an op-ed about the news. I need to comment. On 13th November I wrote about Chinese health workers killing pets when their owners contracted Covid. It is described as a zero-tolerance policy. In truth it is a desperately cruel and inhumane policy, deeply tainted with immorality and ignorance.

RELATED: Chinese health workers “disinfect” an apartment by killing the owner’s dog with a crowbar!

Past stories of legalised animal cruelty. Corgi dog brutally killed by crazed health officials in China to disinfect the dog owner's apartment. Image credit: see image.

Well, there's a bit of good news in the online news media today. It comes from China Daily.com. They report on a story in which a woman contracted Covid. The family have a much loved and long-standing cat companion. The cat was not mercilessly killed as appears to be in happening in the past, but protected and treated with respect. I hope it lasts. Don't hold your breath 😇.

China is taking a very tough stance on Covid. In this instance the woman was taken into quarantine away from her home while her home was disinfected. And while that happened the family cat was put into a carrier and, I guess, removed from the home. They employed a person with knowledge of domestic cats to care for the cat during this process. The cat had been placed in the restroom for a few days apparently (isolation?) which is not great but far more satisfactory than killing him or her.

The story comes from the Gaoxin district of Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province. They say that the cat was provided with a clean litter box, water and food after being tested for Covid. News got out that the cat was being treated well which pleased cat aficionados in China. But I guess it reminded them of the brutality of the alternative method.

There is a discussion in China, apparently, about how to deal with companion animals when their owners get Covid. The owner of the cat asked the health workers who were controlling her quarantine to check on her cat. It appears that an army of officials and health workers descended upon her home including the police, disinfecting experts and workers from the district CDC and subdistrict office! 

That's how serious the Chinese are dealing with Covid. I guess it has come about because of a fear of a fourth wave and increased infections which would stall economic growth something which the Chinese are incredibly passionate about to the detriment of the rest of the world!

A health worker said: "Prior to the visit, we contacted the patient's community first. In addition, because of our lack of knowledge in cats, we went specifically to a pet store and inquired for advice from the shopkeeper, and purchased cat food and cans."

That sounds very nice. That sounds great. It indicates a concern about animal welfare. We love to see that. That's the way it should be every time. Cats are family members. They are not objects to be slaughtered at the whim of some maniac health worker.

On a strictly legal basis, a lawyer in China has been helpful by saying that the law does not mandate that pets should be killed if there is a fear that they might carry Covid and infect others. The law on killing animals under these circumstances only applies to livestock and poultry. There are no regulations on how to deal with pets that are infected with epidemic diseases, he said.

The earlier story, therefore, about health workers killing cats and dogs indicates that these were rogue individuals breaking the law. Of course nothing will happen. They will not be punished for their cruelty but it is clear that there is no law which says that they can treat animals in that way.

It is also reported that Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have taken a more scientific and reasonable approach in dealing with pets during quarantine since the beginning of this year. That, too, is great to hear.

China: three domestic cats euthanized after they contracted Covid

NEWS AND COMMENT - HARBIN, NORTHERN CHINA: This is the first time that a government agency has killed domestic cats because they'd contracted Covid-19. Or at least it is the first time that such an action has been reported in the online news media. 

This is unrelated to the story except that it is in China. Pictures in public domain. Image by MikeB.

Ironically, the owner of the three cats tested positive for Covid on September 21 and went into isolation after leaving food and water out for her cats. Therefore, there is a strong suggestion that she gave her cats the virus. And further in a rather bizarre twist, the cats were euthanized because they might spread the disease to people and there is no treatment for Covid in cats.

Update: Some sites give Miss Liu the title Mrs. They say her cats were killed while she was in hospital. 

That's the reason given by the authorities in Harbin, northern China. And yet, all the experts say that it is unlikely that cats can transmit Covid to people. Personally, I argue that they can transmit Covid to people because the disease is zoonotic and therefore it travels between animals and people and vice versa but it is going to be rare and isolation steps can be taken. Notwithstanding that there have been no known cases of transmission of the disease from cats to people.

And, further, all the cases of domestic cat contracting the disease have shown that symptoms in domestic are mild and they resolve without treatment. That is the status regarding cats and Covid. Once again, notwithstanding this open information, which must've been known to the Harbin authorities, they decided to kill the cats.

"I never wanted to blame anyone, I just wanted to find them a chance to stay alive, but that chance was never given." - Mrs Liu.

The owner's name is Miss Liu and she appealed online to save the cats but her plea was ignored. The owner and cats live in an apartment complex. A community worker tested the cats for coronavirus twice and on each occasion the result was positive.

Shen Yi, a professor at Shanghai-based Fudan University said:

"From the perspective of public health crisis management and control, euthanizing the three cats is a decisive measure to minimize negative effects and avoid worst results."

ASSOCIATED PAGE: Authorities in China are threatening to cull domestic cats and dogs in coronavirus scare.

The story was original reported by Beijing News online. I have searched the website and I can't find it. I wanted to find it because it is said that the article drew 52,000 comments; an extraordinary number and I wanted to see what the citizens of China thought about the killing of the three cats. I will have to guess: they hated it. They felt that it was unfair and unreasonable. They could have been put into quarantine and then retested. To kill them callously is an indication of the low value that they placed on domestic cats. People who like cats will be upset by the story.

ASSOCIATED: City of Shenzhen, China prepares to ban cat and dog meat

Early on in the pandemic there was a spate of domestic cat killings by their owners. On occasion cats and dogs were thrown out of high-rise apartments because panic developed among the citizens of China. There are many great cat caregivers in China, probably hundreds of millions of, but they have the stain of the cat and dog meat markets in the south of the country. That stain overrides everything I say with respect to the human-to-cat relationship in China. As long as they brutally kill cats to eat them you can never claim that the citizens of China love their cats.

Body parts of America's 10,000 tigers end up in China in their medicine

Tigers are still "the chosen one" for wildlife traffickers. There are many other animals which are also abused and used but I would suggest that the tiger is the number one product to be sold. And the number one consumer is China. I'm told that the Chinese government realise that traditional Chinese medicine doesn't really work but they allow the businesses to flourish in the interests of trade and keeping the peace. 

Tiger found in Houston residence was taken to a rescue facility. Photo: Godofredo A Vasquez/AP.

The trouble is that President Xi has no concern about wildlife conservation and in particular the tiger population which is being decimated by Chinese traditional medicine due to poaching. Yes, China has a large number of tiger farms where tigers are treated as livestock, like cows, but when you treat tigers like that you inevitably devalue their status in the world to the point where there is illegal activity in obtaining tiger body parts from other parts of the world. Tiger farms muddy tiger conservation.

It is estimated that there are10,000 tigers in America because America has either none or very lax tiger ownership regulations across their 50 states. The rules do vary between states but, for example, in nine states there are no permit or licence requirements whatsoever. In general, the requirement is very simple, a USDA conservation label form and a $30 licence according to The Guardian newspaper.

ASSOCIATED: Tiger Bone

And because there is such a vast number of tigers in captivity in America (about three times the number of wild tigers across the entire planet) when they conveniently disappear, as many do, you can probably assume that their bodies and body parts are being shipped out to China in illegal activity to be turned into Chinese traditional medicine. Tiger body parts are enormously valuable.

Tiger penis products? Photo in public domain.

The authorities in America, through primarily the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, store about 1.3 million confiscated animal products but they say that this is the tip of the iceberg. They confiscate about 10% of all goods that pass through US ports. It's a losing battle it seems to me.

ASSOCIATED: Picture of seven frozen tiger cubs for Asian body parts market

John Platt, the editor of the Revelator, the media partner of the Centre for Biological Diversity said: "I would not be surprised if US tigers were turning up in China."

He suggested this because so many big cats in the US disappear, he said. There is a huge black market because the financial value of tiger bone and tiger penises (as two examples) is high. In a capitalist society where business is governed by market forces, if a product is valuable, businesses find a way to produce it or farm it and sell it internationally, if needs be. 

That's why I think we can say with some confidence that many of the 10,000 tigers in America end up in the form of body parts in Beijing, China. It is an unedifying thought. Humankind has debased and degraded the mighty tiger to a consumer product, no more. 

Pink tiger bone jewellery made by deboning a living tiger. Photo: The Tiger Mafia (believed).

The animal is worth more dead than alive and when they are farmed in China, they live miserable lives before slaughter. Some have their bones extracted while they are alive! It's a complete failure of conservation even if 3,500 Bengal tigers are still in existence in India and Bangladesh. There used to be 100,000 of them at the turn of the 20th century.

Pictures of 154 purebred cats smuggled by the sea route from mainland China to Taiwan

I have written about this before but I did not have these pictures available to me at that time. The two pictures are worth a thousand words because they give a very clear idea what it was like to smuggle these purebred cats across the sea from mainland China to Taiwan. 

Pictures of 154 purebred cats smuggled by the sea route from mainland China to Taiwan.  Picture: Coastguard admin.

Pictures of 154 purebred cats smuggled by the sea route from mainland China to Taiwan. Picture: Coastguard admin.

This was a valuable cargo which was entirely destroyed by the authorities. What you see is part of it but in all 154 purebred cats including Ragdolls and Bengal cats was seized by the authorities and killed because of bio-security risks. They say that the cats may have had diseases which might present a problem to the human population in Taiwan into the future. They couldn't risk these diseases being spread to people. They didn't consider quarantine which I think would have been a more humane method. In other words, they could have quarantined them for long enough for any disease to be cleared and ticked off.

CLICK FOR THE EARLIER ARTICLE

There was outrage as predicted when the news leaked out to the population. In response, Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, responded as a cat lover. She lives with two cats herself. She hoped that in the future a more humane method would be chosen to deal with smuggled cats but in the meantime, she supported the coastguard and the authorities for killing the cats. Reading between the lines I would say that she was deeply disturbed by the killing but she felt that she had to support the authorities for obvious reasons.

Click this for another story about euthanasia: Educated person distributes letter threatening euthanasia of feral cats in neighbourhood

There were calls to amend the existing laws so that this sort of killing wouldn't happen again and the president of the country called for amendments to the existing laws so that these situations could be handled "with the spirit of humanity" to use her words.

The cargo, in all, has been valued at around US$357,000 or 10 million Taiwanese dollars. On monetary value alone, it would have been wise to have found an alternative method to killing them. These were sentient beings and they could have found homes for them. The money raised could have been ploughed back into animal rescue in Taiwan to save lives. It is very easy to destroy something, even sentient, beings but much harder to find the more difficult route and stick to it, even if it is frustrating, troublesome but far more humane.

154 smuggled purebred cats "culled" because of the risk of disease transmission

CHINA AND TAIWAN-NEWS AND COMMENT: It appears to be a well-known fact in Taiwan that purebred cats are being smuggled by boat across the sea from mainland China to Taiwan in order to feed what appears to be an insatiable appetite for the possession of fancy purebred cats such as Ragdolls and Persians in Taiwan. These cats are very valuable. There appears to be many boat trips between these countries. I have written about this recently - please click to read.

154 purebred cats smuggled from China to Taiwan by sea have been put down. Photo: Twitter.

Recently the coastguard stopped a boat about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Taiwan inside of which were 62 cages containing 154 purebred cats of the following breeds: Russian Blues, Ragdolls, Persians, American Shorthairs and British Shorthairs. The cats were seized with a value of 10 million new Taiwan dollars which equates to US$357,504.

The authorities decided to cull them i.e. kill them or euthanise them to use a euphemism. They did this because of what they claim to be biosecurity reasons because of Covid and rabies. Rabies is present in China. Animal advocates were outraged and asked why the authorities could not have decided upon a more humane treatment such as placing the cats into quarantine to confirm that they were free of disease and then adopting them out.

In response, the authorities have appeared to demonstrate some acceptance that they could have done better and behaved more humanely. The website Taiwan News pitches the story in a different manner. They say that Taiwan is going to pursue severe punishment of animal smugglers in the wake of this cat culling. That focus is on punishing the smugglers which is exactly what the authorities would argue. It is not their fault they argue that they had to cull fancy purebred cats but the fault of the smugglers who need to be punished more severely. The Council of Agriculture (COA) is seeking an amendment to the Smuggling Penalty Act to slap a NT$3 million (US$107,227) fine on those trading pet animals without legitimate origins

Within that mix you might have to add the citizens of Taiwan who are purchasing these cats. I wonder whether they know where they came from? Perhaps they don't care and there might lie the problem. When a person adopts a purebred cat, they should always go to the breeder's establishment to see the cats with their mother and make a selection there. Should not buy a purebred cat online sight unseen.

The president of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) , a cat caregiver herself, was moved to make a statement about this because she was obviously upset by what had gone on. I interpret her statement to include an agreement that they could do better but she towed the official line namely that the culling had to happen because rabies on mainland China. The virus could be latent for years they say and so could pose a significant threat to animals and even people in Taiwan.

One issue, obviously, is that people don't know how or where these cats are being bred. And that is another significant issue. The smugglers are not only taking advantage of Taiwanese citizens who are purchasing the cats but their operation is based upon probably quite dubious breeders whose standard of animal welfare might well be very low. We don't know how healthy these cats were. It is probably likely that there were no certificates provided with the cats to confirm that they were clear of diseases as usual when a registered cat breeder sells purebred kittens.

The great tragedy in the story is of course that 154 domestic cats have been killed. They are the innocent victims. An interesting thought is whether cat loving Taiwanese citizens would feel the same outrage if 154 moggies had been killed under the same circumstances.

Purebred kittens and puppies are being smuggled between mainland China and Hong Kong by boat

The Asia One website reports the death of an alleged Chinese smuggler of 28 kittens and puppies whose body was found in Hong Kong waters after a high-speed chase. Two men were involved in the smuggling of kittens and puppies from mainland China to Hong Kong. The police tried to intercept the speedboat. It took off at high speed. The pursuit took 10 minutes during which one of the men fell from the speedboat about 1.8 km offshore. They think he might have jumped to avoid capture.

Kittens, cats and puppies are being smuggled between mainland China and Hong Kong by boat. Photo: SCMP.

The police found 15 puppies and 13 kittens inside eight cages on the speedboat together with other contraband. The pets were expensive breeds. They projected that each could be sold for as much as HK$10,000 each in Hong Kong (£928). It seems that expensive purebred puppies and kittens are being smuggled from mainland China to Hong Kong for sale. This must be happening to avoid importation laws and duties.

UPDATE: The Guardian newspaper reports terrible news causing outrage in Taiwan:

"The animals were estimated to have a value of $10m New Taiwan Dollars (US$357,504). All were put down on Saturday, which also happened to be International Homeless Animals Day."

Last November 34 kittens and 9 puppies were also smuggled into Hong Kong from the mainland. On that occasion no arrests were made. The kittens were expensive purebred cats such as Ragdolls, Russian Blues, British Shorthairs, Scottish Folds, American Shorthairs and Bengals.

On another occasion, sadly, 15 cats and dogs were discovered deceased inside cages. They believe that the cages were thrown overboard while the smugglers were being pursued by the police. Apparently smuggling also takes place in the opposite direction from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland. When companion animals are smuggled from Hong Kong to China it is believed to be because mainland Chinese working in Hong Kong return home and ask an agency to have their pets sent to them. They pay 40,000 yuan for the service.

Comment: I don't know the laws pertaining to the importation and exportation of animals in and out of Hong Kong and China but clearly there are heavy restrictions. There is a land border between Hong Kong and China and a sea border. I'm going to guess that the smugglers chose the sea border because they felt it was far more likely to succeed. It appears that smuggling pets in this way is not uncommon. Covid may be the main reason for smuggling pets as there may be an absolute ban on pet importation into Hong Kong at this time.

Ultimate source: SCMP.

Hong Kong residents are emigrating with or without their pets

I am sure anyone and everyone knows about China's crackdown on democracy supporters in Hong Kong. They introduced a security law which effectively undermines democracy in Hong Kong and which is in clear breach of their treaty with the UK which was signed at handover. The UK failed to call them out on this and did nothing except to allow Hong Kongers fast-track immigration into the UK.

People who push back against the Hong Kong government which is dictated to by China' government are subject to security clampdowns, abuses of democracy et cetera. Therefore, many Hong Kong citizens who support democracy and simply can't stop and comply, have decided to leave Hong Kong in their many thousands.

Hong Kong emigrants. Photo: Hong Kong Free Press. Not the title 'Free Press'. That is a loaded title and a dig at China.

This leaves the big question as to what to do with their companion animals. They can take them with them but the costs are extraordinarily high. One Hong Kong citizen, Yip, 40, spent over $14,000 to get his three huskies and his cat to Britain where he is settling with his girlfriend and a 22-year-old daughter. He simply couldn't leave them behind.

As mentioned, Britain decided to give Hong Kong citizens a rapid route to citizenship in Britain with specially created visas. However, because of the complexities of flying companion animals from Hong Kong to Britain due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, combined with the costs and the issues of quarantine when they arrive in the UK, many Hong Kong citizens are abandoning their pets.

This is confirmed by veterinarians and animal shelters. It is reported that records from the Agriculture and Fisheries Department in Hong Kong, show that there has been a 35% increase in animal health certificate issued from 2018 to 2020. The certificates are required to travel when emigrating from Hong Kong.

Also, the SPCA animal welfare group which operates veterinary clinics in Hong Kong reports an approximate fivefold increase between 2018 and 2020 of micro-chipping. This is required when emigrating to European countries, New Zealand and Australia. This is clearly indicative of a surge in immigration to those countries from Hong Kong.

And according to the Hong Kong Dog Rescue Charity there has been a 30% increase in the number of dogs abandoned in recent months. 20 dogs have been abandoned per month according to this charity.

And the SPCA's chief veterinary surgeon, Jane Gray, reports that they are receiving more telephone calls from people who are considering abandoning their companion animals. Her staff have been trying to convince them not to relinquish them. She said, quite correctly, that when you adopt a companion animal you do it for the life of the animal.

Unfortunately, when push comes to shove and people really need to get out of Hong Kong it does test the relationship between themselves and their companion animal. It's the true test as to whether the bond is good and the relationship is sound. When it is not, those are the circumstances under which relinquishment takes place.

Report: Reuters.

Minghao with a kitten

Minghao with a kitten. I have chosen this picture because I think it's very nice although I'm not completely convinced about the way the kitten is being held by Minghao. Better not to treat cats and kittens as babies. 

I'm also not completely convinced that this is Minghao! :) The Twitter caption is not clear but I think it is. And if it is, Minghao is a Chinese singer, songwriter and dancer living in South Korea and a member of the South Korean boy group Seventeen. I have seen another photograph of Minghao with another cat so this guy likes cats. 

His alternative name is interestingly "The8". It is a very novel name. It is a stage name. The number 8 is liked by many people in China. When it is "laid down" (whatever that means - rotated?), the infinite sign appears. That may be partly why it is considered a nice number.

Minghao with a kitten. Instagram.

It's interesting that if you search for "cats" on Twitter you invariably get a huge number of tweets from South Korean boy bands. These are all very attractive, girly, or androgynous looking boys. I think this is a good thing. It is nice to see the boundary between female and male broken down. It is very much a modern concept.

It would appear that South Korean girls (who are the biggest audience for K-pop) like this kind of neutral, in-between the genders, beauty. And that is fine. Perhaps when they grow up, they may be more attracted to the more masculine (in the classic sense) male appearance.

They are groups that have been created artificially, I would say, by producers who want to make a lot of money out of them. I don't want to misrepresent the situation, and I am guessing, but it is likely that these boys are exploited. I wonder how much money they get out of their songs? No doubt the producer who created the band gets by far the biggest slice of the profit.

On an associated issue, there are a lot of celebrities who like to have companion animals. And they almost invariably create an Instagram account to tell the world about this. Sometimes the photographs are excellent and they genuinely are entertaining to their fans.

Of course, when a celebrity associates themselves with an attractive companion animal it helps to promote that celebrity. It also helps, incidentally, to promote the animal which is often nowadays a purebred cat, sometimes the Scottish Fold because this particular breed has been promoted by Taylor Swift. I have some doubts about the ethics of that because the breed has potential health issues. But that is another matter which I won't go into here.

Here's a bit more about Minghao. He was born on November 7, 1997 and attended Beijing Contemporary Music Academy. The boy band Seventeen debuted in 2015. Minghao was awarded the "Prime Minister's Commendation" from the Prime Minister of South Korea for his contribution to the development of the country's contemporary pop culture and arts.

Rules of Olympic Games and other big events should protect stray cats

The Japan Olympics have arrived (they should not be stage but that's another story). A convenient time for this quick note about big events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. These events are distributed around the globe in new places for good reason. 

The IOC wants developing nations to stage the event to enhance those countries and speed up their development. There is a problem with stray cats in these countries. In order to present to the world a good image they kill the cats. They round them up and simply kill them to clean the streets. Stray and feral cats spoil the image that they want to present to the world.

The Olympics is a vehicle for killing stray cats and dogs. Pic in public domain.

They often kill them brutally. China did this at their Olympics and at the Winter Olympics in Russia. And the same goes for stray dogs, too. This is gross animal cruelty which the world entirely accepts. Yes, the world accepts it. But it is entirely unacceptable. The IOC have extensive rules on how the Olympics are staged. They want to build a better world through sport. That's their ultimate objective. So why can't they include animals in that objective? They share the world with people.

The IOC should incorporate within their rules a clear ban on governments killing stray and feral cats before staging the Olympic Games in their country. It should specify that if these countries want to eradicate stray cats from the streets in preparation for the games, they must do it humanely through trapping and professional euthanasia with the appropriate drugs. That should be the absolute minimum requirement.

A better solution would be to relocate the cats under a TNR program commenced well in advance of the games. This could start four years before the games are staged which would give local governments adequate time to operate TNR programs in the area of the games. I know that I am making a big call and it is a steep alteration in attitude.

Local governments and national governments simply want to get rid of the problem because they are stressed in trying to prepare adequately for the Olympic Games. But it is entirely unfair, inhumane and morally wrong to brutally kill cats and dogs for this reason. The problem gets conveniently forgotten because they are 'only cats' but we put them there, they are our responsibility. And it is our responsibility to deal with them humanely and with decency. I would like the IOC to step up to the plate and do something about this unnecessary abuse of animals.

Terrifying moment Siberian tiger in China rams into car and knocks over farm worker

This video confirms that the Siberian tiger exists in China. If it does exist in China it has to be right up at the north-eastern tip of China near Vladivostok in Russia. The specialists are not sure if this tiger had wandered across from Russia because the area above Vladivostok is the prime area where the Siberian Tiger is found. There is a very precarious popution of Siberian tigers of around 540 as at 2017. But this will be an estimate. It might be inaccurate. Politically they want the number to be climbing. I don't believe we can trust the figure.

Terrifying moment Siberian tiger in China rams into car and knocks over farm worker. Screenshot.

This was an interesting story because this large Siberian tiger was on the rampage in a village and you get that distinct impression in the video. The people who encountered the tiger were terrified. The animal saunters across a field and attacks a woman farmworker, Li Chunxiang, but simply knocks her down and then carries on rather unusually it seems to me. Sh said she was dumbfounded. 

Shattered glass of drivers side window caused by charging Siberian tiger in northeast China

Then the tiger charges at a car which tries to get away but the tiger rams into the window with, I presume, it's face, breaking the glass. Perhaps the tiger wanted to attack the driver behind the glass and did not see the glass. I suspect the tiger hurt itself slightly, at least.

The tiger was eventually captured after about 12 hours of causing mayhem in this village by darting it with a tranquilliser. It was tracked with a drone (see photo above). The Chinese specialists were going to check out the animal's DNA and do other research on the tiger before, I presume, releasing it.

Note: videos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes the videos are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.

I have another page on this which you can read by clicking this link.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats

The Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, has 2 cats, Ding Ding and Yuan Yuan. They are both grey. One of them, who I believe is Ding Ding has partially folded ears which indicates to me that this cat carries the Scottish Fold gene or a variant of it. The ambassador adopted both cats in the Philippines during the pandemic. 

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats.
This is one of them possibly Ding Ding.

He adopted them as kittens. He took them to a veterinarian to have them checked thoroughly. He says there now strong and healthy. They love each other but sometimes they fight and are a bit naughty. He likes their company during his work and he finds them comforting. He said the work hard during the pandemic.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian has 2 cats. This is 
possibly Yuan Yuan.

He wants cat lovers to guess which cat is called Ding Ding in which cat is called Yuan Yuan. I haven't got an idea about that! The Chinese word "Yuan" is the currency in China. I checked out what Ding means in Chinese. It's a family name humans and there are just two strokes to it when writing it in Chinese. Someone Facebook said it means (round) in English. I read that it means strong. I'm no nearer to figuring out which name fits which cat. I have guessed.

Huang Xilian should be screaming from the rooftops for the cat cruelty that takes place in China's cat meat markets to stop immediately. It is horrible behavior and it is time it stopped. How can he love cats and be silent about this damnable market where tens of thousands of cats and dogs are brutally killed annually for meat because they belive that the flesh has some medicinal qualities. It is pure bullshit.

Have they found that narcissistic Asian woman who killed her cat in a washing machine?

In Oct 2017 I wrote about a pretty, young, narcissistic Asian woman who killed her pretty but not narcissistic white cat in her washing machine (click here to read it). I figured that she lives in the south of China where they have a dubious relationship with cats as they like to eat them en masse for superstitious reasons. Horrible. Mad.

Narcissistic Asian woman who killed her cat on social media for fame. Her social media page.

But have they caught this mad, pretty woman? Probably not. She committed a crime by normal standards. She should be arrested and punished. The trouble is that in China they don't have any meaningful animal welfare laws so she has not committed a crime in her country. Even if she had she'd get away with it because of police apathy.

She had the temerity to post her film of her killing her cat online, on social media. That is why I say she is narcissistic. It is that self-indulgent desire for 15 minutes of fame. Some youth of today can't bear to be anonymous. They want to be someone and they'll do anything even animal cruelty of the most henous kind to achieve those ends.

You know that one in fourteen (more than 7% actually) of British children have tried to kill themselves! Astonishing. It shows a deep malaise in the minds of British kids. They are suffering but why? Where does this mental health issue come from? 

It has been made worse by Covid-19. They don't see a future. The future is harder for kids today than it was in my day. I agree that. But it is not that bad. I think it is linked to expectation. Unrealistic expectations which are generated through using social media.

Back to the Asian woman. It is the same problem. She wants fame even if it is a negative version of fame: notoriety. Infamy. It is all the same to her. As long as she is not anonymous. This is part of the reason why British kids sometimes want to end their lives. They can't become famous. There is nothing worse for them than being ugly and invisible. An empty, meaningless future.

Scotland's first Minister, Nicola Sturgeon says that the coronavirus is no one's fault

How can it be that the coronavirus pandemic is no one's fault? This is what Nicola Sturgeon believes or it is what she stated before the cameras at one of her coronavirus updates to the nation. There is no rhyme nor reason why she should say this. Does she believe that the coronavirus pandemic is no one's fault? Surely it must be someone's fault? It would not have happened if the relationship between people and wild animals had been better regulated in China. This catastrophic disease would not have jumped from animals to people.

Go to 13:23 on the video:

The experts state that the cause of it is abuses of nature and that abuse or mishandling to put it more kindly of nature took place in the more than 20,000 wet markets of China. These are places where wild animals are slaughtered in unhygienic places and under circumstances where the killing of animals was and probably is not properly regulated.

All the evidence points to fault being placed at the feet of the authorities who regulate how the wet food markets operate, in this case in the city of Wuhan. Clearly more evidence is needed and we may never get it because the Chinese will hide the evidence but what we have points to Covid-19, as it is now called, because transmitting from a wild animal possibly a pangolin in one of these wet markets to the human who was killing it. This released the virus to the person and other people in the wet market where it was then transmitted to other people rapidly. The disease is a zoonotic disease which is one which can be transmitted from animal to person and person to animal.

I put the blame at the feet of the Chinese government. I don't want to sound xenophobic or racist but that is where it happened and I think the world would agree with me. I will allege, and this is strictly an allegation, that Nicola Sturgeon was asked to make this very strange statement in her speech to the nation by the Chinese ambassador because he promised her investments and a possible deal if and when Scotland becomes independent or even before that. Scotland's economy is in a bad way. It was in a bad way before the pandemic and it will be worse afterward. They need help. They spend more money than they make which is what Nicola Sturgeon describes as progressive government. I'm afraid that she cannot face reality. I read somewhere that more than half the nation in Scotland do not contribute to the wealth of the nation. In other words they are takers rather than givers to the nation in terms of tax contributions. Scotland is running a big deficit year-on-year, the worst in the EU. Although they blame the UK as a whole. They are given billions under the Barnett formula which was meant to be temporary.

What has this got to do with cats? Well a lot. Cats get coronavirus. Wildcats get coronavirus. The trillions of dollars poured into trying to protect people because of the coronavirus would have been better used in conservation of the wild cat species and it would have been better used in combating climate change and many other issues regarding the natural world. Now that money will never be available. It is devastating for conservation never mind the effect that it is having on human lives.

China has got wildlife conservation by the balls

OPINION: Wildlife conservation has become too expensive. I'm not referring to the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars and pounds on protecting the wild species. I'm referring to the consequences of global trade and the economies of the major countries in trying to protect wildlife.

According to data published by the United Nations Statistics Division, China accounted for 28% of global manufacturing output in 2018. In 2019, China accounted for approximately 21% of the global retail market. The second largest share after the United States.

For 15 years American taxpayers’ money purchased cats 

from Chinese wet markets for medical research.

China is in Africa in a big way. They are there to mine for precious metals to support their manufacturing industry. Africa is the home of the greatest iconic wild species on the planet. The forests in Africa are being torn down to make way for plantations and mining. African nations have sold out to China. They are being tricked and to be frank they're not the best stewards of wildlife. We know that without being overly critical because the lion population in Africa has dropped in just two decades by 43%. It is estimated that as few as 23,000 remain today. The same story more or less applies to the other species.

This is not all down to China. The population in Africa is the fastest-growing in the world. Humankind is taking up the lion's habitat. But China is the big player in wildlife conservation without actually being a player. They're simply a barrier because if you tried to stop mining in Africa to protect the African golden cat which lives in the forests of central and west Africa, you would upset the Chinese government and in doing that they would stop buying your products and they'd stop manufacturing your products and therefore they've got wildlife conservation by the balls.

And if you wanted to genuinely protect the Bengal tiger, you would do something about traditional Chinese medicine because tiger body parts go into it. When and if a country did something about the propensity for rich Chinese in China to eat tiger body parts and drink tiger wine made from the bones of tigers or lions or whatever other big animal they can kill and stew and drink, they'd suffer economically by Chinese retaliation.

President Xi, has vocally supported traditional Chinese medicine. There is no chance that the West can force the Chinese to change their minds about the killing of wild species to supply Chinese medicine because if they do the Chinese will retaliate with a trade war and they will win because the West is hooked on cheap goods and the West like a bloody drug and is dependent on selling their goods in China. The average citizen living in the West is not tuned in to wildlife conservation but it tuned in to cheap goods. They'd revolt is they became more expensive because of conservation efforts.

It's too expensive to run an effective conservation programme. It's too expensive in terms of how China will react which would damage the economies of those countries trying to save the wild species. Sir David Attenborough said it's not too late to change course and protect the planet. I agree but I'm not hopeful.

I hate going on about the Chinese but they have a disregard for animal welfare. It is part of their culture and their attitude. It's the cause of the coronavirus pandemic - wet markets. The pandemic itself is a huge setback to wildlife conservation because there will be a dearth of money to spend on animal welfare because it's all been spent on protecting people and jacking up failing economies because of extensive lockdown.

I am one of those people who suspect that China deliberately created the coronavirus pandemic because it benefits them. They had a head start once the virus was released which allowed them to minimise damage to their economy and get ahead of the other world economies. It benefits them. I have an incredibly negative and pessimistic attitude currently about wildlife conservation because the big blocker at its core is bloody China.

Men caused the coronavirus and they damage everyone

The UN secretary-general Antonio Gutterres has more or less blamed male leaders for the coronavirus pandemic, for bad management throughout the globe and for leading the world into situations which "damages everyone-women, men, girls and boys".

Gutteres' tweet.

He is clearly a very strong feminist and we can't blame him for that. It is still a male dominated world. The reason why I am mentioning it on this website is because this site is about animal welfare and the coronavirus was ostensibly caused by animal abuse, I think it is fair to say. It was caused by messing with nature to put it in very general terms. Either that or the Chinese deliberately started it in their Wuhan bio lab in order to gain advantage over the rest of the world. We know how aggressively ambitious they are and how they will stop at nothing to gain an advantage.

I must not digress. The point is that Antonio Gutterres has created a backlash from people who have suggested that he should resign; he is after all a man running a leading organisation and if he is so anti-men he should step down and allow a woman to lead the UN to a more peaceful and ameliorative planet.

Antonio Gutterres calls it a "millennia of patriarchy". I have to admit, however, that I don't think that the coronavirus pandemic would have happened if a woman was the president of China. Perhaps she would have placed greater restrictions on the wet markets of which there are 22,000 in China and where, it is thought, the pandemic started; the virus having originated in bats.

Mr Gutterres foresees a "horrifying global surge in domestic violence" due to the fear of the virus and the fallout from lockdown's combined with anxiety. There has indeed been an increase in domestic violence in the UK and I'm sure this applies to other parts of the world.

The coronavirus pandemic will fade but the virus will stay and the world will have to adjust. Deaths are being managed far better. Although infections are rising again in a second spike, deaths are remaining very low. I suspect that deaths from the virus are no higher than deaths from many other causes and therefore we should treat it as just another potential health problem. I don't think we can do anything else because we have to get on with living.

However, it is a great shame that we did not take the opportunity of the coronavirus pandemic to alter society dramatically. I wanted to see a great shift towards improving the welfare of the planet and of nature. It is an abuse of nature which caused the pandemic and therefore there is an obligation on humankind to alter its relationship with nature in their interests. Humans cannot keep distance from nature. We are part of it. We come from it. We must reconnect with nature and perhaps a woman leader may help us achieve that.

There is a possibility that in the USA, the president after Joe Biden (on the presumption that he makes it to the White House) might be a woman because his deputy is female. Perhaps we can look forward to a world which Mr Gutterres craves but don't bank on it.

9 countries where they eat cat and dog meat (2020)

China - dog meat. For me it is horrific. What about you?

Although China is known to be the country where cat and dog meat is eaten in large quantities, in the south of the country particularly, there are eight others and one of them, surprisingly, is the United States of America. I'm not sure where it happens or whether certain states have banned it or indeed whether there are plans nationwide to ban it. I thought I had read somewhere that the federal government had stopped the eating of cat and dog meat but I appear to be wrong. The American government has, however, put pressure on China to end the cat meat trade.

Apparently, people in Hawaii like to eat stray cats and dogs and have done so for years. A proposed bill to ban it was shelved because apparently there was no enough evidence that it actually took place.

Vietnam is another country where they eat a lot of cat and dog meat. The dogs are snatched from the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and sold to restaurants and street vendors. There is a lucrative black market trade. Dog meat can sell for about $10 per kilogram. It is used in dog stew and in a soup of blood apparently. You can get barbecue dog lemongrass and ginger and steamed dog with shrimp-paste sauce. To me, it sounds disgusting. It is not part of the contract between dogs or cats and humans to allow humans to slaughter them brutally and then eat them. That term was not written into the contract. There is a booming appetite in Vietnam for cat and dog meat. It is deeply ingrained into their psyche and their culture.

Another country where this practice takes place is a European country namely Switzerland. Farmers in the hills of Switzerland like to eat cat and dog meat occasionally. They tend to prefer Rottweiler because it tastes like beef. Eating cat and dog mean apparently is quite popular in the Rhine Valley and dog lard is occasionally used for medicinal purposes in this attractive country. For me, the practice of eating cat and dog meat is unattractive. How is it compatible with European culture? Switzerland is not in the EU and therefore companion animals are unprotected by EU law.

In French Polynesia they have eaten cat and dog meat for hundreds of years. When European settlers arrived in 1769 it appears that they wanted to engender the idea that cats and dogs were pets but the practice persists. Reportedly, Captain Cook and his crew ate dog meat when they arrived on the islands.

Korea consumes about 2.5 million dogs as a health food. I am talking about South Korea. We don't know what happens in North Korea but I would suspect that they have the same attitude towards eating companion animals. Eating dog meat is particularly popular in the summer. Some people believe that eating dog on the warmest days of the year helps to beat the heat. It is a $2 billion-a-year industry in the country.

I have just realised that there is a tenth country where they eat cat meat and that country is India. It is not at all widespread but it does happen in some villages. I have written about this so please click on this link to read the article.

I must finish on a slightly uplifting note. There is a gradual shift away from cat and dog meat in the Far East. There are animal advocates in China for example who rescue dogs and cats from the back of trucks while they are being transported to cat and dog meat markets. It is pleasant to understand that there are animal advocates on the ground in China during this. 

The Internet plays a big role here. Although chunks of the Internet are banned from the Chinese, the attitudes about the relationship between humans and cats and dogs in the West is infiltrating into Chinese society, I believe. So gradually they are becoming more aware that cats and dogs are just pets and not to be eaten. Of course, there are many millions of Chinese who live contentedly with well loved companion cats and dogs which I must say is contradictory bearing in mind the thousands killed brutally to be eaten.

I am told that dog meat is eaten in hard times in Canada, Greenland and Siberia (Russia). I have balled these together.

Real Fur Cheaper Than Fake Fur Resulting in Fresh Fraudulent Activity

In a perverse reversal of roles retailers and manufacturers are misrepresenting, sometimes fraudulently, the sort of fur that is on the products that they sell. What I'm saying is that the price of real fur from animals usually bred or stolen in China and brutally slaughtered for their fur has fallen to such a level that is now it appears to be cheaper than fake fur.

As a result, manufacturers use real fur rather than fake fur. As a further result, in order to prevent animal lovers from knowing about this, they represent real fur as fake fur. This is an extraordinary development and a worrying one because it indicates that there is an oversupply of real fur which further indicates that the production the real fur is increasing while demand is saying static or reducing.

I fear that production is increasing which means that there's a lot more animal cruelty of the most horrendous kind taking place in places like China where for example the raccoon dog is farmed for its fur and domestic and stray cats and dogs are rounded up from the streets and stripped of their skins.

Apparently the price of a 70 cm strip of real fur is about one dollar, which is quite extraordinary and shows the pitifully low value of the lives of the animals which have been forced to give up their skin to satisfy consumer demand.

One disastrous aspect of this development is that animal lovers who purposefully purchase items trimmed with fake fur are now being conned into wearing clothes which contains real fur. If they knew about that they would be shocked. It is very difficult for a consumer to tell the difference between fake and real fur.

However, if the consumer looks at the tip of the fur it goes to a point when it is real. Fake fur does not have that same feathering towards a tip. In addition, if the fur is parted and the base of the fur is observed you will see that it is affixed to the skin of the animal. You don't get that with fake fur. Purchases of items which contain fur should check these points before buying it because, as mentioned, there is a considerable amount of fraudulent misrepresentation of products in shops in the UK and almost certainly anywhere in the world.

This develop most concerns me because I know, as many other cat lovers know, that cats are brutally killed in places like China and Vietnam for their fur and sometimes eaten for medicinal reasons. It's all quite bizarre to me. It is quite harrowing and utterly immoral.

Trading standards officers in the UK have been fooled because they were unaware of this fraudulent practice. There is a lax attitude as far as I'm concerned with fur trimmings on items and there's lots of items such as gloves and jacket hoods which contain fur. Purchasers should be aware.

This problem is also big in America. There are insufficient controls. It is time that the trading standards authorities became tougher on Chinese importers.

Insect Repellent Detected in Jerky Pet Treats for Dogs

Do you remember the scandalous story of the pet jerky treats made in China and people reporting over one thousand dog deaths and many more complaints of illness as a result of eating these treats?  The majority of the problems concerned dogs but some cats were also affected.  As I recall, the FDA was unable to establish hard evidence that the Chinese made pet treats were causing the deaths and therefore the product remained available to the consternation of perhaps hundreds of thousands of dog owners. Petco recently decided to remove it (in the near future) from their shelves.

Well, I read today a post on the website of Dr Mark Peterson a veterinary endocrinologist which he is titled “Insect Repellent, Anti-Viral Drug Detected in Jerky Pet Treats for Dogs".  The post is dated May 22, 2014.

This is not, therefore, strictly about cats but it is about pets and therefore relevant in my opinion.  Dr Peterson states that chicken jerky treats which are being eaten by dogs over the past few months have been found to be tainted by insect repellent which is known as a DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide).  DEET is a rather nasty chemical that can affect a person's health in sufficient dosage. This product has also been found to be tainted with the anti-viral drug called amantadine.

This information is according to a veterinary pathologist who I understand is Dr Harr referred to below leading independent research into his long-standing pet jerky treat mystery which, as mentioned, remained un-resolved for a long time by the FDA.

Dr. Kendal Harr, leading the study remarks:

“The clinical significance is unknown … but these are contaminated treats,” Harr said. “I think what the illegal residues tell us is that we have a contaminated food source.”  

This information seems to be significant to me and I believe that it would be wise to pass it around the Internet.

This is a full report.

China: Eating Cats Leads To Rat Problems

It is common knowledge today that the people of Guangzhou Province in southern China like to eat the stray and, I'm sure, the domestic cat.  It is part of their culture.  We have learned that they eat about 10,000 cats per day. Obviously, this is a very large number.

I have also read that because they consume some many cats they have to ship them in from other parts of China. I have read that there are lorry loads of cats coming in from the North.  The same incidentally applies to dogs, to the best of my knowledge.

Recently, there has been a report that in Hunan Province which is adjacent and exactly north of Guangzhou Province there is a plague of rats.  We are told that the country suffers from a plague of a reported 2,000,000,000 rats which were displaced by a flooded lake.  I believe that this lake is in Hunan Province. you can see it on the map.

So my assessment of the situation is that in Hunan Province, China they have a plague of rats and they're also shipping cats from that province south to the Province where they love to eat them.  I wonder whether these two events and facts are connected.  Just a thought.

Stray cats will feed on rodents and if you're shipping tens of thousands of stray cats from one area to another it occurs to me that the rat population in the area from which the cats are shipped may increase.  There is no evidence to support what I have stated (as a possibility) but nonetheless it is a sensible deduction.

Ironically, there are now shipping rats to the south as well because in Guangzhou Province the citizens eat anything that moves without compunction and without any regard for any other factors.

The official reason for the plague of rats is a lack of snakes and owls.  Snakes are also eaten in the south and owls are killed for traditional Chinese medicine.  I would like to add the lack of a sufficient number of stray cats in Hunan Province as a more likely reason why this plague of rats exists.

Note: the map is a merged one (by me) of two maps from Wikimedia Commons.