Boycott China by not buying their cheap products any more to make a statement about the Yulin dog meat 'festival'

I agree with Phaedra on Twitter. With the Yulin dog meat festival around the corner (June 21st), today is a good day for all citizens in the West to boycott Chinese products manufactured in China. Billions of their products are bought by citizens of the West to support China. 

Sickening and abject cruelty. We must not accept it. We should make a stand and boycott Chinese goods. Image: Twitter.

I don't mind normal business but if people in the West want to make a statement about the objectionably cruel and barbaric dog meat 'festival' then they should stop buying Chinese products. That means checking whether it has been made in China or not. It means doing a bit of research and paying more perhaps for the same sort of product.

It'll be hard. But we can contribute to making the world a better place. And my God it needs to be improved especially, for me, concerning the lack of animal welfare in Asia.

RELATED: How can the 10-day dog meat market in Yulin be called a FESTIVAL!?

I think that we are addicted to cheap Chinese products. They do make some great products which is why online businesses such as Amazon sell billions of them. And I love Amazon. But, we should make an effort I think to put some pressure on China to change their attitudes and culture regarding the cat and dog meat businesses.

It's just too cruel to ignore. The governments of Western countries do not want to put any pressure on China to improve animal welfare in their country. It is, therefore, down to the citizens of these countries to take unilateral action. To do their little bit to put even a tiny bit of pressure on China. 

If millions of people stopped buying Chinese products it may achieve something. It is highly unlikely obviously because only about 10 people will read this post!! But something has to be done because every day, on Twitter, we see the barbaric human behaviour at the Yulin dog meat festival. We can't simply acquiesce to this. In acquiescing we are accepting it.

I know there is a cultural issue here. People say that people in one country should not get involved in the culture of another country. In general, I tend to agree with that except in exceptional circumstances as is the case with gross animal cruelty. In my mind this is a universal and global issue. It is up to anyone anywhere to criticise and become involved. This is about mother Earth not individual countries and their cultures.

Today is a good day to to #BoycottChina and stop shopping except for the most important items. Even the cheapest #Chinese items add up.#StopYulin

Save money, send a message. We do not accept ⬇️
⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ https://t.co/HiaQCN9AS6 pic.twitter.com/CWIN0XzwOI

— Phaedra (@PhaedraXTeddy) June 3, 2023

It is crazy bad to teach a kid of 6 to shoot an animal for fun

Please click on this link to see the image. It has to be on another page where there are no advertisers as they might object. Sorry. The link opens another tab so you stay on this page.

A tweet on the above image by MoS and which I agree with:

"I don't care what anyone says, THIS IS child abuse. At that age the children should be taught about life and the wonders of nature, including the many species of wildlife. Many parents thrust their love of killing animals onto their offspring teaching them life is worthless!!!!"

Many parents such as the one in the image teach their children that animals are NOT sentient creatures able to feel pain. This kid does not know that he has caused a massive amount of pain and distress. It is an aspect of sport hunting which is never discussed by the shooters. For the child it is target practise. It is fun. There is no price to pay; no downside. It is a game. The dad is to blame.

How is humanity to become more civilised and improve animal welfare which is a hallmark of civilisation? How we treat the more vulnerable than us is a measure of our moral code and civility.

This father is educating his child to become like him: an unthinking brute when it comes to his relationship with animals.

Animal welfare is about education; what you put in the minds of the kids. They are the future of animal welfare. Good education invariably improves animal welfare in general.

The more one reads on animal sentience and animal abuse the more you realise that human ignorance is the foundation of animal cruelty.

What about fishing? People see fish as nuts and bolts; non-animate creatures. Wrong. They feel pain. Just an example.

Hunting traditions are throwbacks to the ancient past; hundreds if not thousands of years ago when hunting was necessary to survive.

When hunters say it is their culture based in old, well-established traditions to hunt they are admitting that their minds are rooted in a past when humankind was far more ignorant. That defence for sporting hunting is an admission of ignorance.

These sorts of traditions need to be put in the garbage bin asap. It is not just about the pain caused. Conservation is massive these days as humankind presides over the mass extinction of animal species.

And what about that good old-fashioned word 'compassion'. I guess it is not in dad's vocabulary.

Asian man is JOYOUS as he cruelly tortures a confused dog

Please I don't want anyone saying I am being racist. I am not. I am reporting on what I see. If someone criticises me, they are defending animal cruelty of the most heinous type.

As they say, all the devils are here and during the Yulin dog festival and they are all in bloodyYulin. I makes me weep to see this. There is another picture adjacent to this one on Twitter which is worse but I can't handle it. I can't force myself to download and upload it because it means looking at it. 

Note: I believe this to be Yulin, China. If I am wrong tell me please. It changes nothing though.

Sorry. I can't show the picture here as there are advertisers on this page. Please click here to see it.

And these devils in human clothes in Yulin are doing it. They are completely without any moral code or awareness of what they are doing. They have no knowledge of animal sentience. No thought about the pain and acute distress they are causing. 

Just blank, mindless and ignorant heads full of sh*t. I hate them with a massive vengeance. These idiots are the people I hate the most by a big margin.

In a more civilised society with animal welfare laws, they'd be arrested on the spot and charged but in good old Yulin, nada. It is entirely accepted and admired.

Look at the onlookers. Gawping at the crazy animal torture. Voyeurs of the worst kind. Disgusting.

Approximately 10,000 dogs are slaughtered each year for the “festival”. Actually, word 'slaughter' is wrong as it implies abattoir and European standards. It is not. It is just beating them to death or worse.

An estimated 30 million dogs are killed for human consumption each year across Asia in a brutal trade that involves terrible cruelty to animals and often, criminal activity. - Humane Society

That is about half the human population of the UK. That is about half the total number of domestic dogs in the USA. Yes, in terms of numbers, 50% of the dogs in the USA are brutally killed annually for their flesh in Asia. Great. This is massive stain on humanity. 

It is so bad I wonder if it affects the social conscience of the Chinese and Asian generally. No, that can't be true.

The nadir or animal cruelty and it takes places 30 million times in 12 months and it is LEGAL! And if for bizarre reason it is technically illegal who gives a sh*t as the law is unenforced.

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.

Civet cats cruelly abused for the civet cat poop coffee business in ghastly Indonesian farms

Civet cat poop farm. Screenshot from PETA video.

OPINION: I bumped into this picture (below) of the civet cat as it used to be called. As you can see this species of small mammal looks like a cat but it isn't. It is more closely related to mongooses. Many years ago, they were called civet cats when scientists classified animals by their appearance only. Nowadays we have DNA analysis which tells us this is not a member of the cat family.

Civet cat. Image in public domain.

It's a good picture because it shows you how in some ways they are similar to domestic cats but the muzzle is much longer. The civet that you see in the picture is a large spotted civet which is endangered in south-east Asia. They are eaten in China and may be extinct in China. Their main threat is deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations as they live in forests. Another example of human behaviour destroying habitats and the animals that live in those habitats.

For the civet it is worse than just destroying habitat. I didn't need to go far to bump into more abuse of wild animals. In this case the abuse of civets for the simple reason that their poop is used to make coffee; very expensive coffee. Can you believe that?

Civet poop coffee

This fashionable trend started some years ago and animal exploiters jumped on it. It is called the 'kopi luwak' industry in Indonesia. It is coffee made from civet cat poop. The reason that it can be made from faeces is because the civets eat coffee beans and therefore, they defecate some of the coffee beans in their poop. That is how it works as I understand it. Apparently, the coffee so produced tastes less bitter than conventional coffee.

PETA Asia investigated the Indonesian farms where civets are kept in abysmal conditions. They say that the sensitive Asian palm civet cats are constantly confined to cramped wire cages and fed a restrictive diet of coffee cherries.

As you might expect the animals become terribly stressed and anxious. They pace which is a displacement activity to try and cope with stress. They try and escape their filthy prisons. They have to eat this unnatural diet as it produces excrement they can be sold as "civet cat poop coffee" a.k.a. kopi luwak.

PETA says that some of the civets go insane. Indonesia is the world's top producer of this ridiculous form of coffee bean. You can buy this sort of coffee in cafés worldwide.

The tourists who drink it are aware of the animal cruelty behind it. They should be enlightened. That's why I am writing this to contribute towards that enlightenment.

The Asian palm civets are a protected species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). But they aren't, are they? That particular treaty is a complete failure as far as I am concerned. It is routinely ignored and unenforced.

PETA says that there is "pervasive cruelty on every single farm". These are nocturnal animals. They cannot express their natural behaviour obviously. They have no dark place to sleep and therefore do not get enough rest. When they were observed they panted "incessantly in the inescapable heat". Some had bloody wounds and appeared not to be receiving veterinary care. Some were losing their fur because of malnourishment.

Those in this ghastly business say that their civet cat poop is wild sourced but it isn't. More lies. Thankfully, because of PETA Asia's many investigations over 10 years some outlets have made the decision to pull kopi luwak from their shelves and to cut ties with this cruel industry.

Disappointingly, distributors in Japan, where there is one of the biggest civet cat poop markets, choose to continue to profit from this gross animal cruelty.

Further comment: I despair to be honest. There's no reason on God's earth why people need to drink coffee made from an animal's faeces! It just is ridiculous in the first place but to compound the ridiculousness of this form of human behaviour, humans have to be cruel to the animals that produce the poop. It's a double whammy of madness. When is the human going to grow up, stop being so stupid, stop being so self-indulgent, stop being so cruel to animals and start to be civilised?

We can't show what the Vietnamese cat meat traders do to cats as it is too graphic

Philosophically speaking

Funny that? What the Vietnamese cat and dog meat traders do to cats and dogs is so bad and so graphic that we can't show it. I understand that. We shouldn't see the most gruesomely cruel aspects of this business because it harms us. 

Philosophically speaking that is a very peculiar thing to say. We can protect ourselves from looking at the extreme cruelty that humans perpetrate upon cats but at the same time we allow that extreme cruelty to take place. If that isn't speciesism, I don't know what is.

The fact that looking at extreme animal cruelty is harmful to us surely must remind us that it should never happen. The best way to protect ourselves from looking at extreme animal cruelty is to not do the animal cruelty in the first place!

Vietnam

Vietnam is as bad as China when it comes to cat and dog meat. They treat stray and domestic cats as free livestock to be snatched from the streets and brutally killed and then eaten. It's a good business because the livestock is free! There's no need to farm the livestock, to feed it, to care for it. They simply steal it and kill it.

The tweet

And it's not just dog meat trade that's common. Cat meat trade is also very common in Vietnam. I cannot share most of the content our brave volunteers in Hanoi, Vietnam were able to collect because it's just too graphic but this is how they are cramped up in cages.

The video

I cannot watch this video. I simply uploaded it. It comes from Twitter. One thing comes to mind immediately. These are defeated animals. And they are thrust together, crammed into a disgusting cage, in the most abysmal conditions. 

Domestic cats have a home range normally. They need space around them. In an ideal world that space might be many acres. Here they are on top of each other. Emotionally crushed. Demoralised. Anxious. Terrified. They can do nothing but accept their brutal fate. This is the nadir of animal cruelty in my book.

And, the international community entirely accepts it. The Vietnamese government accept it as normal. Nothing is done to stop it. It goes on year after year. The people who defend the cat meat business ask: what is difference between this and farming animals? 

This is not farming. There are no regulations in the cat meat businesses. Farmed livestock is slaughtered under regulated conditions. The objective is to slaughter the animals humanely so that they don't feel pain.

These cats are going to feel tremendous pain before they die. The whole process is essentially cruel. That is a big difference. And secondly, when we domesticated cats there was not an agreement that we could kill them brutally and eat them. 

The agreement was that we supported each other. That is how cat domestication came about in the first place. What we see here was not on the cards. This was not projected. It is a breach of that unwritten agreement by humans. It is foul animal abuse of the worst kind.

Tradition and culture

The underlying problem, as is the case in China, is that there is a culture of eating cat and dog meat in Vietnam. But that culture is based upon an ancient tradition going back perhaps one or 2000 years. It is bringing an ancient tradition into the modern world which does not work. This is because 1000 years ago people were less civilised and less educated about animal welfare. Traditional practices bring forward into the modern world animal cruelty.

Diabolical Australian shooters killing as many 'diabolical' feral cats as possible.

It is blood lust war on an unwanted animal. Sod the philosophical issues. Just grab the rifle and bullets and get out there in the Aussie outback and start taking pot shots at cats as fast and as furiously as possible. I can't watch the video. To sick and irritating for me. But it may interest some people and provide an insight into their thinking. Did I say 'thinking'? Not much deep thinking going on.

The caption to the video reads:

"In Shooting Cats, VICE set out to explore the consequences of Australia's feral cat plague, and confront the uncomfortable and violent realities of dealing with it. Most suburban Australians give feral cats little thought. But for residents of the country’s rural fringes, they’re a diabolical pest and scourge on wildlife. Found in 99 percent of Australia, they’re estimated to kill more than two million native animals a day. That devastation has seen Kangaroo Island local Barry Green declare a personal war against cats; trapping and skinning them, before turning them into hats and fridge magnets."

You can see that the people who made the video detest the feral cat. They don't ask deeper questions other than believe that the feral cats kills too many natives species. It would be asking too much for these ignorant shooters (they look a bit thick, don't they?) to think a bit deeper about the origin of the feral cat. Why are they there on their continent?

Because of stupid people; that's why. People like you. The cat is not naturally in Australia. They were brought there by settlers who let their domestic cats run wild and become feral. The early Aussie were stupid too.

As people created the 'feral cat problem' they have an obligation now to sort the problem. And as they are sentient beings the problem needs to be sorted humanely. But that simple truth escapes them entirely.

The point is that these guys love to shoot animals. It is a pleasure for them and the presence of the feral cat gives them a wonderful opportunity to satisfy their blood lust.

If it isn't the feral cat, it'd be the fox or the kangaroo. Just gotta shoot animals. Any animal will do but it has to be legal and it is legal to shoot feral cats in Australia.

What these guys are doing would be entirely illegal in the UK. They'd be in the criminal courts facing a year or more in jail for animal cruelty. Yes. Sounds weird right? But it is true.

The Australian animal welfare laws don't protect feral cats.

This is how Chinese thieves steal dogs for the dog meat market

The video is completely explanatory and horrific to any decent person. It shows a couple of men getting out of a van and climbing the wall surrounding a front yard in which are two pet dogs. They use dog catcher poles to capture the dogs and in the case of one of the dogs drag them over the wall with force by the steel collar around his neck. Horrendous. It could have killed the dog. Perhaps it did. 

Utterly, utterly brutal. By Western criminal standards these men are psychopathic bastards. They'd be in jail for several years if they did this in the UK and were caught and successful prosecuted.

The dogs are then driven in lorries in very cramped, rusty cages to China's south to the dog markets where their end will be shockingly brutal. My heart hurts for them. May they rest in peace. Bless them. As a wise person said, hell is empty. All the devils are stealing cats and dogs in China for dog meat and fur.

I won't say what I'd like to do to these men. It'd be as brutal as the abuse they mete out to the dogs.

Duck down industry in China is unconscionably cruel. Listen to their cries.

This is a video from PETA. It is hard to watch as usual. They say you should listen to the soundtrack. I haven't. I can barely look at the first three seconds of the video. It is horrendous. And yet people in the West rely upon this when they buy their duck down duvets or clothing insulated with down. Nobody should be buying duck down duvets. They should buy synthetic insulation.

WARNING: take deep breath and steal yourself if you feel that you are up to watching this rank cruelty. Shame on these people.

PETA exposed so-called responsible down standards farms live plucking geese. Another scam in this world full of scams. In a world getting worse with more and more objectionable human behaviour.

This live geese feather plucking has been going on for donkeys years. It is a process known as "live plucking". Producers developed international standards claiming that they were more responsible which did not include live plucking. 

You can see a screenshot of the video by clicking on this link. It's on another page as there are advertisers on this page.

But when PETA and PETA Asia visited farms associated with these responsible companies, they uncovered this animal cruelty.

They also tell us that 80% of the world's down and feathers used in clothing, sleeping bags and duvets come from China.

The investigators working undercover saw workers ripping geese's feathers out leaving bloody open wounds while the birds were fully conscious. Many of the bird struggled and cried in terror and pain they say. Other birds just froze; paralysed with fear.

To stop the birds from fleeing, the workers stepped on their delicate wings and necks and bound their feet together. They sometimes put them in choke holds while ripping out their feathers and swinging them about by their wings. When released, the geese cried out loudly and ran back to their flocks.

Any geese and chicks who are injured and sick are left to die a slow death. Dead birds were left decaying in crates and ponds or tossed around like trash according to PETA's report. This is China. This is duck down. This is bird hell.

When you are lying in your bed under your beautiful and expensive duck down high-quality duvet bought in Harrods, think about these ducks. You are sleeping under their pain.

Ms Wang met a cat seller on the sidewalk in China

OPINION: Once again, I can't look at the video below. Here's an insight. If you write about China's relationship with domestic and street cats as portrayed on social media IT CAN HARM YOU. Yes, very much so. If you are sensitive to the sentience of animals. If you care about animal welfare as I do. And as many others do as well.

Ms Wang met a cat seller on the sidewalk in China. Screenshot.

I feel a duty to spread the word about what is happening in China. It is one of those countries which throws up some horror stories of animal cruelty. This can only happen under an attitude that in general disrespects animals. Pakistan is another country which is woefully out of step with the world in this respect and very backward.

This disrespect is SCREAMED out from China to the rest of the world by the stark and entirely unacceptable fact that they don't believe in animal welfare laws to protect animals. There are almost none and there no umbrella animal welfare law such as we see in every country in the West.

Animal protection through legislation is a staple of all developed countries. Not so for China, the country with world's second largest economy and destined to have the largest in the not-too-distant future. 

This is not an omission borne out of carelessness but a deliberate act by Beijing to allow the Chinese culture to thrive which includes cruelty to animals.

International pressure needs to be applied to the PRC (People's Republic of China) to change their ways. To upgrade themselves and drag their sorry asses into the 21st century.

The tweet

Animal lives don't seem to matter. They are often treated as commodities, without compassion. Right now, life for cats seems to be very dangerous. The story: Rescuer : I feel very pitiful. May 13, Changde, Hunan, China. Ms. Wang met a cat seller on the pedestrian street.

Location

The video

Photo of street cat in China should leave us feeling concerned

This is a straight forward photograph of a street cat in China, somewhere. It should not worry us but it concerns me because I've just been reading and writing about a monstrous individual who likes to torture and kill street cats in China. You can read about this man if you want to buy on this link but it's unpleasant although there are no photographs which might harm you psychologically.

Street cat in China. Image: What's on Weibo.

The picture that you see on this page accompanies an article written about 3 years ago which tells the story of a Chinese security guard pouring scalding water over a pregnant cat. another psychopathic individual who gets kicks from extreme violence against cats. 

The story went viral on social media and there was a call for animal welfare legislation in China which trended on Weibo.com.

It takes extreme animal cruelty to provoke Chinese citizens to demand animal welfare laws which should be entirely acceptable and which should have been in place donkey's years ago.

China is out on a limb in respect of animal welfare. All abandoned or homeless animals - almost always cats and dogs - are highly vulnerable to becoming the victim of extreme torture or turned into a meal in China.

There is no value in street cats or sensitivity towards their sentience in China. They are garbage. Rubbish. Trash. You can do what you like with them.

Although there must be many Chinese who love cats and care for them well. It's just that there are far too many who are the opposite. And no protection for them under the law.

Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip leads a gang torturing/killing street cats in China

NEWS AND OPINION: Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip leads a gang torturing street cats in China and he created a video game app in which cats are cruelly killed in kitchen blenders. These are ALLEGATIONS. He did it for real! He killed a cat in a blender and videoed it and uploaded the video to Chinese social media.

Update: I've been told by a reliable associate who knows more than I do about this evil gang of cat torturers that the man I've mentioned Xu Zhihui is not the true leader of this gang but a person living in America who funds them. I am confirming this because it sounds very strange to me. Note: I could not confirm it and believe it was a lie.

The real leaders are in hiding and they use the name Xu Zhihui to post videos. I don't know whether this is a real person or a fictional person. Probably the latter. It is symptomatic of this story that it is shrouded in smoke and mirrors which what I'd expect.

Xu Zhihui - Xu Mouhui - Jack Hot Strip - Jack Spicey Strip. Gross and disgusting cat torturer and killer who needs to be stopped asap.

Gang? torturing and killing street cats

The story isn't clear but in my current opinion, Xu Zhihui is the leader of a gang (not sure if it's a gang or he kills alone) of Chinese men who like to torture and kill street cats in China. He is a food blogger/vlogger and he runs multiple accounts. He has a large following on a Chinese website called Bilibili with 400,000 followers and a Weibo account with over 20,000 fans. He posts videos of himself cooking (cats??). 

That seems to be his mainstream activity but I would allege that as a side activity to entertain himself and his gang of merry murderers, he commits the most heinous animal cruelty against street cats.

Cowcat was brutally tortured for 3 days by a famous food blogger. The Cowcat case kind of leads and symbolizes this "animal rights movement" in China.

I briefly saw a picture of one of the cats he horrendously tortured (I think the above tweet refers to it). He tied the cat up and cut off the cat's paws and then burnt the cat to death. And there is an uploaded image of this. It's something I shouldn't have seen but I just bumped into it. There is another below but I have pixelated it.

There is a current movement in China for animal welfare laws due to the hideous torture of this cat. If Beijing does create laws because of this cat's torture it would be the best legacy any cat has given to the world ever.

Different names

The problem with this man is that he has various names and personas and therefore is very difficult to know where the truth lies. For example, another name is Xu Mouhui (online name @jack spicy strip).

And I've written about this man before firstly in respect of a video game which I think he created. I don't know for sure but I think he did. It's a video game in which the player kills cats by putting them in blenders and in other cruel ways.

Beaten up

It fits in very nicely with his general modus operandi (MO) which is to torture cats and kill them. And I've seen on Twitter allegations that he killed cats by putting them in microwaves or one of his gang did. And also, I have a page on another website in which I have a video showing him allegedly being beaten up on the streets of China. Note: this video may show a gang beating up someone else in Holland! See what I mean. It is all smoke and mirrors.

It appears that he became well-known enough to be recognised and he wasn't just known for his cooking but also for his cat killing and torture.

No animal welfare laws China

The great difficulty with this man is stopping him. This is because in China they have very weak animal welfare laws. There is no umbrella animal welfare law which protects animals in general. This is shocking in itself. In fact, it is as shocking to know this as it is to know that this disgusting man allegedly tortures and kills cats.

But perhaps he does it because he knows he can get away with it. It is just not illegal to do it. However, my research on a Chinese website, Weibo.com tells me that the police are involved (but in what way?) and although there is no penalty for abusing stray cats and dogs 'without owners' (as they say) it may be against the law to upload videos of animal abuse because it is a breach of the peace. It disturbs society and undermines the cohesion of society. That, as I understand it, maybe why his activities could be illegal in China.

Apology

He apologised but can we believe that he is sincere? He asked to be given another chance. And he said that he was willing to bear all the consequences of his actions. He posted this apology on April 27 on his Weibo channel. 

On that channel he writes:

I am "Jack Hot Strip" Xu Zhihui, and I feel very ashamed, remorseful and sorry for my behavior of abusing cats and taking videos, grafting videos of online cat abuse and sharing in QQ groups.

You can read the apology and see a disgusting video (click here) in which I believe his apology is written out but, in the background, out of focus, is a video of a cat being abused. Thankfully it is out of focus but even then, it is horrifying and shocking.

Weibo post

On Weibo below this post (poor translation from Chinese) is the picture below which I have partly pixelated.

Jack Spicy Strip only admits to abusing cats, without mentioning the industrial chain formed by shooting cat-abuse videos, have these audiences investigated? Nearly a thousand demons in the group are quick to enjoy the abuse and mutilation of weak lives, and dare not imagine how twisted and ugly souls are covered under human skin, this is only the tip of the iceberg that has been exposed, there is no cost of crime, there will always be abuse and mutilation in the dark places!!!

That link also takes you to his channel on Weibo.com. If you are a Chinese speaker then you will be much more able than me to understand what is going on.

The trouble is that Weibo.com translates the Chinese into English and it is very poor English. In fact, it is unintelligible. But the general drift is that people don't believe his apology is genuine.

My thanks to whatsonweibo.com and Twitter.

Horrible cruelty in China against a working donkey

The background music is obviously highly inappropriate but probably significantly in line with the attitude of the person that we see beating this donkey because they can't pull a weight which apparently is far too heavy for them (I can't watch it). This is a very difficult topic because it means we have to talk about cultural attitudes which are clearly in general completely different in China compared to the UK for instance.

The tweet accompanying the video from 'We Are Not Food' states:

Does this reflect China's attitude towards animals? Or would it be high time to start protecting these most vulnerable members of society? The choice of background music tells a lot - no respect for the suffering of a sentient being.

I have a nice article which I wrote some time ago which helps to explain these cultural differences and which you can read by clicking on this link if you wish. I think that it is a very enlightening article because it does mystify a lot of people in the West as to how people in China - I'm referring to some people in China - can be so brutally cruel to animals without any sensitivity towards their sentience.

It is a tradition. Culture is a tradition. And that is one of the great problems with relying on cultural attitudes to guide one. These cultures originate in a bygone era perhaps 2-3000 years ago. Attitudes then were far less sophisticated than they are now. A country's culture and attitudes must evolve with changes in modern life. This certainly applies to animal welfare.

Improvements in animal welfare are being made but too slowly. Traditional cultures are holding back improvement in animal welfare. It's time for change in that respect. It is time for a greater enlightenment about hanging on to old-fashioned cultures which foster animal abuse as we see in this distressing video.

Anal electrocution of animals in fur trade. Protest outside Dior.

LVMH owns Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Dior and other fashion brands. PETA tells me that they refuse to embrace faux fur to meet the demands of informed and compassionate consumers and continue to deal with real fur traders. The fur trade is viciously cruel. 

Anal electrocution of animals in fur trade. Screenshot.

It doesn't matter how you look at it. The whole concept is horrendous to any decent-minded person. China is the biggest producer and they treat their animals appallingly. It's bad enough to take the skin off the back of animals for f**k**g fashion but to kill them in the most appalling way is shameful, unforgivable and the work of the devil.

This protest took place this month. The tweet is dated May 16th, 2023.

PETA tells me that many animals on fur farms "slowly go insane and even self-mutilate from the stress of intensive confinement."

They say that an investigation into Italian fur farms revealed several injured minks as well as dead minks left inside cages to rot. The survivors were killed by gassing.

On a fur farm in Norway, investigators found six fox cubs confined to a cage with their dead and rotting mother. Foxes are devoted parents and mother foxes commit themselves to protecting their babies.

I can go on and on and on about the cruelty of the fur trade and it is the same no matter where you look. And the bosses at LVMH won't stop dealing in real fur. I've just visited a Dior products website. I don't know whether the fur coats were vintage or modern. It didn't say. But I'm told that they still produce fur garments.

What is sad for me, is that videos on YouTube and on Twitter of these protests don't get enough views. This tells me that not enough people are genuinely interested in protecting the animals from this horrendous cruelty. Perhaps Dior and their masters know this. They know that there is an apathy in the world about the fur trade and perhaps even animal abuse generally. That is why they can get away with it and brush the protesters aside.

The only way to beat it is to continually press and harass until they finally change their ways. Some people say that the big fashion houses have already changed their ways but clearly, they haven't. For example, one website forward.com asks "Are anti-fur protesters hopelessly out of touch?"

What on earth do they mean? There article was written in 2018. Protesters against fur farming will never be out of touch until it stops for good. The video on this page is horrendous. There's a guy on a megaphone telling people that the fur farm businesses electrocute the animals who give up their skin by sticking a probe up their anus or their vagina. I mean what in heavens name is going on in the world if humankind allows that to happen? It's just totally sick and all for the sake of fashion.

And here is another thing: the people, normally women who wear these garments are equally to blame. Why aren't they shunning these garments once and for all? They are accessories to what I would argue is a serious and mass crime. Of course, it is not a crime technically in most (all?) countries but in a better world it would have been. It is certainly deeply immoral.

If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers

If you eat cheese, you are actively supporting babies being taken from their mothers. Screenshot.

This is not about cats. I'm sorry. But sometimes needs must as they say. This is about cows and their calves. It's about the production of milk. You may know that farmers take calves away from their mothers at a very young age so that they don't steal the milk from humans. Farmers want all the milk that the mother produces to be processed and sold to humans which is a bit bizarre because this is cow's milk and it is designed to be drunk by calves. Cow's milk does all kinds bad things to humans such as bloat, diarrhoea and I'm told that it even weakens bones. A lot of people are lactose intolerant which is why they suffer from bloating when they drink cow's milk.

Putting calves in tiny enclosures after being torn from their mums is cruel and unproductive.

So, the end product is no good anyway. In the meantime, the mother suffers the emotional anguish of having her baby taken away from her which is an anguish matched by the distress suffered by the calf. Mothers will kill to save their calves. That's the depth of the bond. Calves are then placed in small patches or tiny enclosures (see image below) separated from other calves and of course their mothers which is more cruelty to animals because cows are social creatures.

The whole process is designed to make farming more efficient. It is relating to livestock as assets. In fact, inanimate assets pretty well because there is little regard to their sentience.

Screenshot.

The more you watch these sorts of videos the more you understand the way farmers handle their livestock and the more you are driven away from dairy and meat products. The reason behind the video is that PETA want people to think like that and give up these products and become vegan. I am on board with that campaign. I've not made it yet but I am heading towards being a vegan or at least a vegetarian.

Adjustable anti-scratch cat shoe is an abomination

Get this picture. What do you think? Your answer depends on whether you want a living toy as a companion animal or a real cat (or as near as we can allow it). The woman/man who owns this Ragdoll cat believes in living toys and shuns the idea of allowing a cat to be a cat. Although there is one upside. They would probably have declawed their cat but for these ghastly bootees.

Read this provocative article about cat ownership: De-sexing our cats changes them from real animals to living toys.

Bootee on all four paws to stop scratching. Image: Reddit.com.

The manufacturers of these bootees are feeding the human fear in some cat owners of cat scratches and furniture being scratched. It is exploitation of a human problem that should not exist. 

Far better for the cat owner to learn to live with cat claws. To learn how to 100% avoid being scratched which is possible by observing cat behavior and understanding how to avoid scratches. 

To change one's attitude about furniture being scratched occasionally as this can be radically reduced by buying a great cat scratching post and putting special double-sided tape on those parts of the furniture which are targeted by cats. 

Training Your Cat to Use a Scratching Post and Where to Put It

There are far better ways to deal with cat claws which are an integral part of the cat. They are so important even when not used as defensive weapons. 

Cat Claw Anatomy Facts For Kids

Anyway, how does a cat feel with this human invention strapped to their paws? They can't feel alright. It must be discombobulating. It must be uncomfortable. 

It is the solemn duty of a cat owner to make their cat as happy as possible. Attaching these monstrosities to their paws achieves the opposite.

Security camera records young man 'dry humping' a domestic cat in Bukit Panjang

Bukit Panjang is in West Region of Singapore. A security camera captured a 'sick' young man dry humping a cat. It is presumed that he was dry humping rather doing the real thing. Dry humping means not making skin-to-skin contact but simulating the sex act through the barrier of clothes.

The cat's owner, Ismul, posted the photo on Instagram to try and force the police to take action as they were disinterested when contacted. Update: the man has been now been arrested. We await further news.

If you are interested you can see the images by clicking ON THIS LINK. Why not on this page? Because it is too horrible and there are adverts on this page.

He states:

“What do you feel when some sick bastards does this to your cat? […] I’m putting it out here and in hopes that this goes viral, so relevant parties can take actions against this guy,” he wrote.

The cat was traumatised but okay. The cat initially tried to escape before being grabbed and held. 

Source: Yahoo! News. 

Are cat hoarders criminals?

You might be forgiven for believing that all cat hoarders are criminals because cat hoarding is almost invariably cruel to cats - a violation of animal welfare laws. That is the impression one gets. But it is not necessarily the right one. Although it is fair to say that perhaps 90% of genuine cat hoarders will be neglectful of their cats and through this neglect be cruel to them causing great harm and often including death.

Many cats in truck looking at camera. There were 43 cats inside this U-Haul truck. Image in the public domain.

The Cat House on the Kings

But some cat hoarders do such a good job in looking after their cats that they can only be praised. Perhaps the most famous person on the planet looking after the largest number of cats is Lynea Lattanzio who is the founder and I guess manager of America's largest cat rescue based in California called The Cat House on the Kings. 

The last time I checked, they had about a thousand cats in their care. I dread to think what their veterinary and food bill is monthly. She is not a cat hoarder in the conventional sense but clearly, she can't say no to a rescue cat. And that is a quality that cat hoarders have.

But all the cats are very carefully cared for and she is the most admirable woman and a champion of cat rescue.

Over the years they have saved over 30,000 cats and even more than 7000 dogs.

Individual circumstances - case by case basis

Whether a cat hoarder is a criminal or not depends upon the individual circumstances and whether they cause harm to their cats due to a failure to provide a proper environment for them and to provide proper care. Are they breaking the relevant animal welfare laws under which they operate? 

UK - RSPCA - Animal Welfare Act 2006

Interestingly, I recently did a bit of work on this. I asked the question, "how bad does it have to get for the RSPCA in the UK to come out and investigate?"

The question was in relation to multi-cat homes. How bad does the home have to be in terms of gross smells and the place becoming uninhabitable before the RSPCA take action? And I mentioned a neighbour of mine who has 10 cats and there are horrible smells coming out of her home. Her home is just about habitable (but not to some) but it is pretty cruel on the cats in my view. They are all full-time indoor cats breathing ammonia daily.

I described the situation to the RSPCA and they told me that it was not breaking the law under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in the UK. That gives you a guideline as to the point at which a cat hoarder becomes a criminal or simply becomes the owner of a multi-cat environment.

Mental health

If they do break the animal welfare laws of the state (in America) in which they operate then the question that has to be asked next is, "what is their mental state?"

Often, it is arguably inappropriate to criminalise a person with mental health problems. And genuine cat hoarders often have mental health problems. 

They often genuinely believe that they are doing some good by rescuing cats and they simply are unable to truly observe what they're doing objectively. 

So rather than punish them the argument is that they should be treated but at the same time they should be banned from looking after animals until assessed as being competent to do so.

Like me, Nike, finds the shooting of 2 million wild kangaroos every year for leather products unacceptable

NEWS AND OPINION - USA AND AUSTRALIA: Like me, Nike, find the killing of 2 million kangaroos every year objectionable and they are doing something about it. They've announced that at the end of 2023 they will no longer be using kangaroo leather in any of their products. Note: this is a cross-post as it is very important in animal welfare.

Perhaps the best-known product in which they use kangaroo leather (K-leather) is football boots. The uppers are often made of kangaroo leather because it is flexible, durable and more functional. As I understand it, many professional footballers have kangaroo leather football boots.

The problem is the source of the leather. We are looking at about the shooting of 2 million kangaroos by shooters employed by harvesters and professional marksmen sometimes at night for their meat and leather.

I have a deep sense of unease about this. I think a lot of the shooters don't just do it for the meat and leather i.e. the commercial interest, but because they enjoy shooting animals.

There must be a better and more humane way of stabilising the kangaroo population in Australia. The argument that the shooters and commercial enterprises spout is that if they don't shoot them like this in large numbers they will starve to death if there is a drought. 

But they don't want, it seems to me, to comment on the morality and ethics of their enterprise and whether there is a more humane way of stabilising the population.

Nike is following in the footsteps of other top brands such as their German rival Puma and an Italian brand, Diadora. The luxury fashion houses including Gucci, Prada and Chanel have also stopped using kangaroo leather. As has the British label, Paul Smith.

Victoria Beckham has also spurned kangaroo leather and I'm told by The Sunday Times that her husband, David Beckham, stopped using kangaroo leather football boots (Adidas Predators) while he was the England captain.

In America, California has a statewide ban on kangaroo products. Oregon's legislature is debating a statewide ban. Nike has their headquarters in Oregon by the way.

Let's remember that when they harvest (a highly objectionable word in my opinion when it relates to sentient creatures) kangaroos it means shooting wild kangaroos. They are not farmed and driven to slaughterhouses to be killed as humanely as possible but they're simply shot by marksmen as mentioned. This must result in untold suffering.

It's impossible to envisage kangaroos being shot cleanly every time. Many hundreds of thousands of them must've been shot badly and died of their injuries slowly. This is clearly inhumane. It is clearly objectionable and it surprises me that it has continued for so long.

Apparently, Nike's change of mind has been brought about by a very long campaign by the Centre for a Humane Economy which was supported by celebrities such as Ricky Gervais's and Woody Harelson (see video above).

For me, this is great news. There may be a federal ban in the US one day because there is an attempt to push through the Kangaroo Protection Act which if passed would create a nationwide ban in America for kangaroo products.

Infographic on speciesism and how it can lead to animal abuse

Here is an article built around an infographic on speciesism and how it can lead to animal abuse. It is greatly unfair to indulge in speciesism. I firmly that we should treat all animals equally and on a par with humans. A lofty and perhaps unattainable goal.

Here are some quick thoughts on speciesism and how it can lead to animal abuse. They are instant thoughts, no more. A stream of consciousness. Please add yours in a comment. It is common sense that if a person regards one species of animal as of lower value than another it is likely that they will treat that animal less well. And if, in addition, they believe that animals are lesser creatures to humans it increases the chances of animal maltreatment. This is speciesism in action.

Cat and dog meat

When I think of speciesism I sometimes think of cat and dog meat. It is a pet topic of mine. Perhaps I shouldn't think of it. But the cause or the underlying reason for cat and dog meat is speciesism. The celebrated contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, a Chinese citizen now living in Portugal, says that the Chinese' relationship with animals is one of functionality. Animals need to be functional and serve the human.

Bible

It is based upon an old-fashioned idea I would suggest in the modern era that humans have dominion over animals, and they are there to serve us. The concept of "dominion" comes from the Bible. The Bible did untold harm in my opinion. Christianity has a very bad relationship with animal abuse. Think of the persecution of domestic and stray cats during the Middle Ages under the orders of a papal bull.

So, in the modern era cat and dog meat is a form of speciesism. A very brutal and horrific form. It isn't the actual eating of cats and dogs that is perhaps the worrying aspect of this tradition going back perhaps thousands of years. It is the fact that they have to be killed brutally in order for the meat to taste good and be medicinal. That's the superstition and cat and dog meat which is based upon superstition. Cat meat is eaten in many other countries including USA.

Superstition

Superstition is part of speciesism. They are in the same rotten group of human thoughts and behaviours. And as I say in the Infographic, there are millions of examples of speciesism.

Australia

The domestic cat is loved by the majority of people but there is a significant number who hate the domestic cat and more so the stray and feral cat. In Australia they hate feral cats because it preys upon their wildlife. It is an invasive species. It is vermin in Australia. They need to be killed as fast as possible. This is speciesism. The human is superior to cats, and dogs are also superior to cats.

The feral cat is at the bottom in terms of a hierarchy of animal species. Small, native mammal species in Australia preyed upon sometimes by the feral cat are considered to be far more important and valued more highly than cats in general in Australia in my view.

This too is an example of speciesism, and it results in an enormous amount of abuse and cruelty of cats on that continent.

China

In China dogs were beaten to death before the Olympic Games in Beijing. They, too, were considered to be pests. During Covid, I recall in one instance a group of men in white hazmat suits walking into a flat and beat a pet beloved dog to death in order to try and control the spread of Covid. This was 'just a dog' not a human and therefore it could be beaten to death without any conscience. It was ghastly and another horrific instance of speciesism in China.

I don't want to harp on about China, but you will see a lot of this animal abuse based upon speciesism in that large Asian country.

Tiger

Sometimes important animals can be reduced to lowly animals in the eyes of humans. Take for example the tiger. An iconic species. An endangered species. One that needs protection on this planet. Many people in India try and protect the Bengal tiger.

Unfortunately, it is poached for its body parts by traders who take the body back to China where those body parts are converted into medicinal products such as tiger bone wine for the Traditional Chinese Medicine market which is enormous. TCM as it is called is perhaps the biggest threat to the extinction of the Bengal tiger on this planet. Even more so than habitat loss. This is a dire example of speciesism.

An iconic species has been reduced to livestock to be cut up and eaten for superstitious reasons. And livestock are abused all over the world because they are just that "livestock". They are there to serve people. To provide food to people. They are not sentient to farmers although they are sentient creatures.

They feel pain and anguish, highs and lows but to farmers there are just livestock and to be killed and eaten. Another example of speciesism leading to animal abuse.

Abattoirs

It is Paul McCartney, of the Beatles who said that if abattoirs had glass walls nobody would eat meat anymore. A clear statement that what goes on in an abattoir is horrific and people should see it. It might change some people from being speciesist to non-speciesist. It might change people from meat eaters to vegans and vegetarians. This is McCartney's objective.

Cats and dogs

Speciesism can occur in more minor ways. Take dogs and cats. Some people are dog people others are cat people are. The truth is that people should be animal people and like dogs and cats equally and if you don't like dogs but like cats you should at least respect dogs and treat them nicely as you would a cat in terms of fundamental welfare.

But some dog people hate cats, and they see cats as sinister and aloof. She them as aggressive and difficult and uncommunicative. They don't see them as loving companion animals which they are. And you will see many instances of stray cat abuse by people who dislike cats. A further example of speciesism. These people put dogs on a pedestal, but they put cats in the gutter.

Singer versus PETA

Singer's definition is only about humans being superior to animals but in my view, it is far better to define speciesism in a way that PETA has namely that it is differentiating between animal species and giving some animals greater value than others as well as giving humans greater value than all animals. This is a wider definition and I think far more useful because a lot of animal abuse comes about through treating some animals as sentient and others as non-sentient.

Fish

What about fish? A lot of people regard fish as nuts and bolts. Didn't see them are sentient creatures. These huge trawlers fish the oceans for millions of fish. When they are caught and dumped onto the deck of their boats they suffocate because they can no longer taking oxygen from water. So, they die of suffocation and in pain. Can fish feel pain? Yes, is the answer to that question.

Once you regard fish as inanimate objects and non-sentient you are engaging in the act of speciesism resulting in the abuse of this devalued animal which is purely regarded as a source of food and non-sentient.

Bees

What about bees and wasps? Bees have been found to be quite intelligent. They enjoy playing with balls and pushing them around the place. People will often simply swot bees and wasps to death when they come into their home because they are 'just insects'. But insects are animals and to simply swot a bee because you feel it is dangerous is yet another example of speciesism.