Cat rescue in China

Cat rescue in China is actually happening and it is the Chinese who are doing the rescuing. For me it is great to read about feral cat rescue in China, the country where feral cats are rounded up, caged and beaten to death before being eaten.

Yet there is a report in the China Daily newspaper of a group of "animal lovers" (as the China Daily calls them - the newspaper uses the term in an almost derogatory manner, it seems) from the Shanghai Animal Protection Association who rescued 800 feral cats that were about to be shipped to Guangdong Province the place where they eat cats from dealers in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. About 1,500 cats were being shipped and 800 released. Great work, but it is so hard for the people of the Shanghai Animal Protection Association and the cats. Where did they go after being released? Will they survive and will they be recaptured? After all there are no animal protection laws in China so the police could do nothing really.

The really great thing is that this is happening and reported. It is the beginning, I hope, but there is a long way to go. The next significant step is for the Chinese government to create some effective law to prevent animal cruelty and protect animal rights and conservation.

I hope and pray that Cat rescue in China is the beginning of an enlightened era and the beginning of the end of the pain suffered by so many cats in China. Let us think of the 800 or so cats who were not rescued and who died a terrible death in the cat markets. I think China wants to feel "accepted" if that is a fair word to use. The fantastic effort and funding put into the Olympics seems to support this. Enacting laws to protect human and animal rights would be a fantastic step.

Cat rescue in China to cat meat name and shame

Eating cat meat is barbaric

Eating cat meat is barbaric in my opinion. Some disagree obviously. I feel compelled to go on pounding away on this subject for the rest of my life until the people who prepare and eat cat meat change their minds. I am sure people know it is unacceptable and quite wrong. In China they justify it by saying it is a tradition. Does this sound like a reasonable justification? If the tradition has value then preserve it. If it is wrong lets get rid of it.

The reason why some sell cat meat is because the supply is free. All they have to do is round up some feral cats. It is partly about commerce it seems. The people of Guangzhou eat cat meat regularly. People created the feral cat "problem" and then some people compound the problem by killing feral cats in a cruel manner and then eating them. There are many things in the West that are wrong too (greedy financial experts to name one) but that shouldn't and will not stop me criticizing behavior in other countries if I feel it needs to be criticized. I have a right as an individual to do that. And people have a right to disagree - please comment.

Update: Dr Bruce Fogle DVM in the UK would agree with me. He calls cat declawing a barbaric practice. He has a strong voice. He is the world's best-known vet and author. 

It isn't just in China though where they eat cat meat (see cat meat name and shame posting). In addition to the countries listed on the name and shame posting, apparently (allegedly) it also happens in Kuwait. In this instance it was alleged that a restaurant was passing off cat meat as some other product. That is different but equally wrong. It is alleged that it was the Jahra branch of the Farah restaurant chain (not sure if this is a chain but that seems to be the case).

The restaurant was making shawarma by adding cooked from frozen cat meat added to other meat allegedly. Shawarma is a middle eastern style sandwich usually made up of lamb, chicken or goat meat. It is roasted on a spit at the front of the facility it seems a bit like kebab shops in England. How many kebab or shawarma shops sell cooked cat meat? Probably a hell of a lot more than we ever imagined.

I am convinced that it happens all over the world; I mean restaurants preparing cat meat and calling it something else. Why? Because it is free roaming around the streets outside the restaurant. They might think that they are doing a service to the community.

We must in my opinion deal with the feral cat problem in one way and one way only --- humanely because we must take responsibility for it. To deal with the problem otherwise is immoral and eating cat meat is barbaric in my view. I am speaking up for the silent cat here.

Eating cat meat is barbaric - photo above is shawarma in Ireland as it happens. No connection with cat meat as far as I am aware. The picture simply show what shawarma looks like. Photo by Fenchurch!

Eating cat meat is barbaric to cat meat name and shame

Cat Meat Philosophy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cat Meat Name Shame

It's cat meat name and shame time. I have made a couple of other posts about cat meat. The sound of the phrase makes me cringe. Why? We eat pigs, chicken etc. Yes, but the killing and eating of farm animals in the West is controlled despite the fact that sometimes breaches of the rules go unenforced. 

At least there is control and necessity in the consumption of farm animals for food, which cannot be said about the cruel slaughter (or a better description, the partial killing to preserve freshness) of domestic cats. Is the killing of our companion animals (actually we are animals too) endorsed by some governments through their acquiescence in the practice? Yes, in China President Xi Jinping endorses cat and dog meat as it is a tradition.

UPDATE: It is worse than I thought. There are 10 countries where cat meat is eaten. Click this to find out the full damning list.

FURTHER UPDATE: China starts to accept Western values in domestic cat ownership.

I believe that the majority of people feel that it is wrong to eat cat meat and this feeling is not misguided, I believe. This feeling is supported by the philosophy of one of the great men of the 21st century, Mahatma Gandhi, who I have quoted before and why not. His wisdom and humanity is exactly what the world continues to need. He was assassinated on 30th January 1948.

He said this about animals:

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

{note: Mahatma Gandhi was not a saint. He was wise but he was a human being with the usual weaknesses. I quote him because I feel the quote is appropriate and wise}
Greatness and moral progress are the measures. When we consider how brutally some people in some countries treat cats (and for the time being I will confine myself to cats for obvious reasons), I can only conclude that these countries are not yet great.

A note: Sarah Hartwell (website, Messybeast) disagrees with the criticism of the Chinese and Eastern countries by the West on the treatment of cats for human food. She says Hindus are appalled at how we treat cattle. A point yes. But a bad one. Hindus think the cow is sacred because it is or was useful. It is a fallacy to think the cow sacred. In any event cows are now ill treated in India, left to wander the roads unsupervised causing accidents.

Listed below are the countries who prepare cat meat and eat it as far as I am aware. I am not saying all the peoples of these counties are morally inadequate, far from it. In fact I will disagree to an extent with Gandhi by saying that the eating of cat meat originates in a lack of education or knowledge. That said education brings wisdom and this brings a higher state of morality, I think it fair to say.

What I am saying is that a culture subsists in these countries indicating a lower level of knowledge by some (perhaps a minority) of the need to respect our fellow creatures, particularly those we keep or kept as companions. Important: this is not a racist attack but a reasoned argument devoid of racial implications:-

China - As I understand it some Chinese people (and I am not talking of all Chinese) think of animals as "moving things" and as similar to a vegetable. They have market(s) where cats are part killed (by hitting on the head for example) to preserve freshness. I don't think that that can ever be supported. Apparently in winter in Guangzhou, 10,000 cats are eaten daily. This seems a lot to me.

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province in the south of People's Republic of China. The picture opposite is a side street in this city>>>>>

A restaurant owner there defended his practice of serving cat meat balls by saying it was a tradition. He killed the cats in the street. It was a tradition in the middle ages in England to burn witches but we don't still do it. The point that I am making is that to support what I and many others (including I am sure many Chinese people) consider cruelty to animals cannot be justified on the basis that it is a tradition.

I would like the Chinese government to introduce some laws/regulations to protect animals in China. China wants to be accepted it seems to me (look at the fantastic Olympic Games that they hosted). Please, China, enact some laws protecting your animals and animals in neighboring countries (i.e the Bengal tiger, parts of which are found in Chinese medicine).

Update: Cat meat freshly killed by partially killing then boiling sells for about $1.32 per pound or about $9 for a medium /small cat. They have to ship cats in from the north (Bejing) as they have run out of feral cats in Guangzhou. There was a fairly recent report about protestors stopping of one of the trucks bringing caged cats in (many had died in transit). Some cats were released. There appears to be a gradual movement within China away from this totally uncivilized behavior. Domestic cats are companion animals - come on China get your act together! Cat and animal welfare needs a prosperous democracy.

Some Chinese are beginning to find the gross habit of others of eating cat meat as unnacceptable. I and many other people are very pleased about that but there is a long way to go and China really must start enacting Cat and Animal Welfare Laws. I am pleased to say that cat rescue is China is happening.

Korea - cats are eaten in rural areas. Cat meat named and shamed I am afraid.

Vietnam - although apparently illegal it is still widespread it seems. Thai Binh area. Considered good luck (a superstition that kills cats).

Madagasgar - probably some other medicinal purpose or something odd and unscientific such as good for sexual potency.

India (Southern Tamil Nadu) - considered medicinal (an unscientific superstition reminiscent of the middle ages). Click here for more detail.

Peru - according to the Wikipedia author cat meat is a regular menu item in restaurants, used in stews etc.

Switzerland - we know that Switzerland is a European hub for cat fur so I guess it is no surprise that in some rural areas they eat cat meat. Switzerland - Cat Meat Name Shame (src: Wikipedia®)

There are others I am sure. Update: Kuwaiti restaurant sells cooked cat meat allegedly, passing it off as something else.

I think that we all know that it is wrong. Lets not qualify it and rationalize it. It is in my view barbaric behavior that needs to be rejected with principle and passion. {note: I realise some will disagree and if so please leave a comment - thanks}


Cat Meat Name Shame - Photos:

• top - from website Kittybeef.com - permission not granted - please contact me.
• middle - Vietnam - cats being prepared for cooking in a restaurant on the street - courtesy VietnamNet Bridge. This has been reproduced here without permission. When it comes to animal cruelty you nave to do what you can to make the point.
• 2nd from bottom - Guangzhou side street - photo by ariwriter published under a creative commons license, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
• bottom - cat in a Vietnamese shop - dangerous life - photo
  by en voyage published under a creative commons license, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

From Cat Meat Name Shame to Home Page

Cat Meat

I won't put another photo up of a cat being killed for human food.

Joke recipe....?

1 cat cut into roast
1 can of f**k*g Cream of Mushroom soup
1 cube of beef bouillon
1 clove of garlic
1 Fine Irish Stout, like Guinness

Is Cat Meat is on sale in the USA? This has got to be a spoof, a sick joke. But it is right on the edge if it is. The business is called KittyBeef. The website is www.kittybeef.com . Am I out of step with the world? Am I the only one who thinks it absolutely appalling that the cat fancy (the huge body of cat lovers and breeders) can go about their business, arguing about whether spots are better than rosettes on a Bengal cat when cat flesh is being shipped around the US for consumption; and I can only presume that it is for human consumption. Or is it a joke. It must be illegal in the US. Could someone please tell me something about this site.

The company is Puppy Beef and Kitty Beef International Meats. The President Yuen Xi. He declares proudly that they have three main locations in the USA. Each "helps to deliver our products to a select area". He then says "below you will find information about each of our 3 main divisions". Nothing is below.... This doesn't seem to be a spoof, however. Is this a joke? Someone tell me please.

I was shocked by this website on cat meat and then went to the Messybeast website. That great bastion of knowledge and integrity. On it Sarah Hartwell had written her usual massively detailed piece this time on cruelty to cats and when they are killed for the pot.

She almost, it seems, accepts the practice explaining that we are little better in the West. I disagree profoundly with her. It is not justification to not heap scorn on the Chinese for their cruelty to animals just because we can be cruel ourselves. At least we have laws to prevent it. If it happens here it is illegal. The Chinese government endorse cruelty to fellow humans never mind animals and never mind cats.

In any event it is patently wrong to prepare cat meat. You don't have to write a 3000 word academic discourse on the subject rationalising it as just another example of human behavior and tough on the cat. You just have to look into your heart. We agreed to live with the cat, not eat our companion.

This cruel killing of cats and eating them should be banned and the laws enforced. Until then we cannot call ourselves civilised.