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(2009-01-02 11:04:14)
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Cat cuisine embroils China shops in protests
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/01/02/cat_cuisine_embroils_china_shops_in_protests/
Cat cuisine embroils China shops in protests
Marchers raid, denounce markets
Several cats were rescued last year by the China Small Animal Protection Association from a Tianjin market that trades cats for meat and fur in Beijing. Several cats were rescued last year by the China Small Animal Protection Association from a Tianjin market that trades cats for meat and fur in Beijing. (ap/eyepress file/2007)
By Barbara Demick
Los Angeles Times / January 2, 2009
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GUANGZHOU, China - The gray tabby cat with hazel eyes and a white nose scrunched at the bottom of a stack of metal cages filled with rabbits, quail, pigeons, and ducks, across the aisle from the buckets of turtles and scorpions in a narrow shop with as many live animals as a petting zoo.
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If it was male or female, young or old, nobody seemed to know or care. All that mattered was its weight, 6.5 pounds.
After a few calculations, the shopkeeper offered to sell the cat for $1.32 per pound, about $9.
We\'ll cut it up right here in back for you, the shopkeeper suggested, gesturing toward a blood-stained room.
The scene is routine at butcher shops in the capital of Guangdong Province, formerly known as Canton. Although Cantonese cooking is known abroad for dim sum and won ton soup, it is also recognized as the most exotic of the Chinese cuisines, serving up a veritable Noah\'s Ark of species on the dinner plate. As a popular saying goes, the Cantonese will eat anything that walks, crawls, hops, or flies.
But now fellow Chinese are drawing the line. Eating cat, they say - that is just too disgusting.
Cats are your friends, not food, read the banners carried at a demonstration last week at Guangzhou train station, where protesters were trying to intercept a shipment of cats.
Dog is eaten in many parts of China, but the consumption of cat meat generally occurs only in Guangdong. It is rare to see a stray cat wandering the streets.
The Small Animal Protection Association says one Guangzhou-based business captures up to 10,000 cats per day from throughout China. The cat snatchers use large fishing nets and are paid $1.50 per cat.
They\'ve eaten all their cats so they have to take ours from Beijing. People don\'t want to let their cats go out on the street, said Zhao Ming, 55, a physician who was among about 40 people demonstrating in Beijing. Cat meat is not illegal and thrives in a seemingly boundless gray area of commerce. Police are reluctant to charge the cat catchers with theft because many of the cats involved live outside and are not technically owned by humans, merely fed and nurtured.
In the absence of laws against cat eaters, cat lovers are taking matters into their own hands.
When Shanghai activists got a tip in August that a truckload of cats was passing nearby on its way to Guangdong, they staged an ambush. About 11 p.m., they confronted the truck at a market, where the driver had stopped to rest, and tried to buy the cats.
When the driver refused, a standoff dragged on until the next afternoon. While some activists argued with the driver and police, others opened the back of the truck and released about 1,600 cats. Some 300 cats were found dead.
Many of the rescue efforts are directed by Lu Di, 80, a woman who had worked for the late Mao Tse-tung, reading to the Chinese leader in his final years when his eyesight was poor.
You can judge how advanced a civilization is by the way it treats its animals, Lu said.
She founded the Small Animal Protection Association, which she runs out of the Beijing apartment that she shares with 15 cats, more than a dozen dogs, a quail, a pigeon, and a monkey.
She picked up one cat with a fresh red scar running around its body caused by a wire attached to a brick that dealers wrap around cats to keep them from running away. Often, the cats are badly mistreated in their final moments, crammed into crates and clubbed into semi-consciousness before being thrown alive into boiling water.
This is a crime that humiliates all Chinese people, Lu said.
The dispute cuts across the fault lines of Chinese society. Among the increasingly Westernized middle class, there is a growing culture of cat fanciers who like them for cuddling.
169; Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
READER COMMENTS (10) Post a comment
Gosh, if the people there are eating all the cats, I wonder what is the animal of choice that disturbed single women will horde now. Gosh, if the people there are eating all the cats, I wonder what is the animal of choice that disturbed single women will horde now.
by petard January 02, 1:41 PM
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I am a cat lover, but someone should be eating these cats in China. They are a public health nuisance. We eat all sorts of animals here... bison, rabbit, lamb/sheep, cows/calfs, pigs/piglets, chicke... Click here to see full comment I am a cat lover, but someone should be eating these cats in China. They are a public health nuisance. We eat all sorts of animals here... bison, rabbit, lamb/sheep, cows/calfs, pigs/piglets, chicken/eggs, turkey, fish, etc... I fail to see why we should say that cats we would otherwise put to sleep here in the US should not be otherwise useful. I think it is very resourceful for people to make a living on the population of homeless cats! Almost capitalist!
by dmssmith January 02, 11:38 AM
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First...I\'m totally happy you\'re not king. Secondly. While I\'m disgusted by the way animals are treated (sometimes) before we slap them on our dinner plates I still eat meat. I\'ve tried to give i... Click here to see full comment First...I\'m totally happy you\'re not king. Secondly. While I\'m disgusted by the way animals are treated (sometimes) before we slap them on our dinner plates I still eat meat. I\'ve tried to give it up but it just doesn\'t work for me. However, I agree that how a society treats its animals is a reflection on them. For instance, when I read the article on those disgusting people sodomizing and beating pigs at the pig farm, I really thought they should be seriously evaluated and punished. Clearly they were not civilized (or sane?). I will confess that I\'m prejudiced about eating cats. I just can\'t imagine eating something that would reach its paw through the cage to bat a string or purr if you look at it. Snakes....scorpians...now those are animals I could get behind putting in a wok.
by StarB January 02, 9:54 AM
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The difference is in terms of intelligence. Sentient creatures shouldnt be eaten, and cats are much more intelligent than cows. They need to outlaw eating dogs too. The difference is in terms of intelligence. Sentient creatures shouldnt be eaten, and cats are much more intelligent than cows. They need to outlaw eating dogs too.
by dpr5000 January 02, 9:54 AM
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VIEW ALL READER COMMENTS (10) >
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http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/01/02/cat_cuisine_embroils_china_shops_in_protests/
Cat cuisine embroils China shops in protests
Marchers raid, denounce markets
Several cats were rescued last year by the China Small Animal Protection Association from a Tianjin market that trades cats for meat and fur in Beijing. Several cats were rescued last year by the China Small Animal Protection Association from a Tianjin market that trades cats for meat and fur in Beijing. (ap/eyepress file/2007)
By Barbara Demick
Los Angeles Times / January 2, 2009
* Email|
* Print|
* Single Page|
* Yahoo! Buzz|
* ShareThis
Text size – +
GUANGZHOU, China - The gray tabby cat with hazel eyes and a white nose scrunched at the bottom of a stack of metal cages filled with rabbits, quail, pigeons, and ducks, across the aisle from the buckets of turtles and scorpions in a narrow shop with as many live animals as a petting zoo.
Discuss
COMMENTS (10)
If it was male or female, young or old, nobody seemed to know or care. All that mattered was its weight, 6.5 pounds.
After a few calculations, the shopkeeper offered to sell the cat for $1.32 per pound, about $9.
We\'ll cut it up right here in back for you, the shopkeeper suggested, gesturing toward a blood-stained room.
The scene is routine at butcher shops in the capital of Guangdong Province, formerly known as Canton. Although Cantonese cooking is known abroad for dim sum and won ton soup, it is also recognized as the most exotic of the Chinese cuisines, serving up a veritable Noah\'s Ark of species on the dinner plate. As a popular saying goes, the Cantonese will eat anything that walks, crawls, hops, or flies.
But now fellow Chinese are drawing the line. Eating cat, they say - that is just too disgusting.
Cats are your friends, not food, read the banners carried at a demonstration last week at Guangzhou train station, where protesters were trying to intercept a shipment of cats.
Dog is eaten in many parts of China, but the consumption of cat meat generally occurs only in Guangdong. It is rare to see a stray cat wandering the streets.
The Small Animal Protection Association says one Guangzhou-based business captures up to 10,000 cats per day from throughout China. The cat snatchers use large fishing nets and are paid $1.50 per cat.
They\'ve eaten all their cats so they have to take ours from Beijing. People don\'t want to let their cats go out on the street, said Zhao Ming, 55, a physician who was among about 40 people demonstrating in Beijing. Cat meat is not illegal and thrives in a seemingly boundless gray area of commerce. Police are reluctant to charge the cat catchers with theft because many of the cats involved live outside and are not technically owned by humans, merely fed and nurtured.
In the absence of laws against cat eaters, cat lovers are taking matters into their own hands.
When Shanghai activists got a tip in August that a truckload of cats was passing nearby on its way to Guangdong, they staged an ambush. About 11 p.m., they confronted the truck at a market, where the driver had stopped to rest, and tried to buy the cats.
When the driver refused, a standoff dragged on until the next afternoon. While some activists argued with the driver and police, others opened the back of the truck and released about 1,600 cats. Some 300 cats were found dead.
Many of the rescue efforts are directed by Lu Di, 80, a woman who had worked for the late Mao Tse-tung, reading to the Chinese leader in his final years when his eyesight was poor.
You can judge how advanced a civilization is by the way it treats its animals, Lu said.
She founded the Small Animal Protection Association, which she runs out of the Beijing apartment that she shares with 15 cats, more than a dozen dogs, a quail, a pigeon, and a monkey.
She picked up one cat with a fresh red scar running around its body caused by a wire attached to a brick that dealers wrap around cats to keep them from running away. Often, the cats are badly mistreated in their final moments, crammed into crates and clubbed into semi-consciousness before being thrown alive into boiling water.
This is a crime that humiliates all Chinese people, Lu said.
The dispute cuts across the fault lines of Chinese society. Among the increasingly Westernized middle class, there is a growing culture of cat fanciers who like them for cuddling.
169; Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
READER COMMENTS (10) Post a comment
Gosh, if the people there are eating all the cats, I wonder what is the animal of choice that disturbed single women will horde now. Gosh, if the people there are eating all the cats, I wonder what is the animal of choice that disturbed single women will horde now.
by petard January 02, 1:41 PM
Report Abuse
I am a cat lover, but someone should be eating these cats in China. They are a public health nuisance. We eat all sorts of animals here... bison, rabbit, lamb/sheep, cows/calfs, pigs/piglets, chicke... Click here to see full comment I am a cat lover, but someone should be eating these cats in China. They are a public health nuisance. We eat all sorts of animals here... bison, rabbit, lamb/sheep, cows/calfs, pigs/piglets, chicken/eggs, turkey, fish, etc... I fail to see why we should say that cats we would otherwise put to sleep here in the US should not be otherwise useful. I think it is very resourceful for people to make a living on the population of homeless cats! Almost capitalist!
by dmssmith January 02, 11:38 AM
Report Abuse
First...I\'m totally happy you\'re not king. Secondly. While I\'m disgusted by the way animals are treated (sometimes) before we slap them on our dinner plates I still eat meat. I\'ve tried to give i... Click here to see full comment First...I\'m totally happy you\'re not king. Secondly. While I\'m disgusted by the way animals are treated (sometimes) before we slap them on our dinner plates I still eat meat. I\'ve tried to give it up but it just doesn\'t work for me. However, I agree that how a society treats its animals is a reflection on them. For instance, when I read the article on those disgusting people sodomizing and beating pigs at the pig farm, I really thought they should be seriously evaluated and punished. Clearly they were not civilized (or sane?). I will confess that I\'m prejudiced about eating cats. I just can\'t imagine eating something that would reach its paw through the cage to bat a string or purr if you look at it. Snakes....scorpians...now those are animals I could get behind putting in a wok.
by StarB January 02, 9:54 AM
Report Abuse
The difference is in terms of intelligence. Sentient creatures shouldnt be eaten, and cats are much more intelligent than cows. They need to outlaw eating dogs too. The difference is in terms of intelligence. Sentient creatures shouldnt be eaten, and cats are much more intelligent than cows. They need to outlaw eating dogs too.
by dpr5000 January 02, 9:54 AM
Report Abuse
VIEW ALL READER COMMENTS (10) >
* Single page
* Single page
* Reprints
* Reprints
* Share
* Share
* Comment
* Comment
*
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Disclaimer: Boston.com does not share this information or keep it permanently, as it is for the sole purpose of sending this one time e-mail.
Ads by Google what\'s this?
How Old is Your Cat?
Take the free CatAge test to find out your cat\'s real age.
www.CatAge.com
Cat Urine Behavior
problems? Products and advice that really work at CatFaeries.com
www.CatFaeries.com
The Cat Doctor of Bedford
Offering herbal, nutritional, and Chinese medical care for cats.
www.catdoctors.com
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