China: 1’000 Cats Rescued from Slaughter

Police in China have rescued around 1’000 cats from a truck on its way to a slaughterhouse, state media reports.

This uncovered part of an illegal trade in which cat meat is fraudulently sold as pork or mutton, raising fresh concerns about food safety.

Following a tip-off from animal welfare activists earlier this month, officials from Zhangjiagang in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu intercepted a vehicle used to collect and transport captured cats, as reported bythe Chinese state news agency The Paper reports.

Without police intervention, the cargo would likely have been slaughtered and shipped south to be served as pork and lamb skewers as well as sausages, according to the report.

Police and agricultural authorities have since taken the cats to a nearby animal shelter, the newspaper reports, after foiling a scheme that could have yielded up to $20’500.

The report neither mentioned whether any arrests had been made, nor whether the cats were strays or pets. CNN has contacted the police in Zhangjiagang and the animal shelter for comment.

The newspaper reports that animal welfare activists first noticed a large number of nailed wooden crates containing many cats near a cemetery.

They patrolled the streets for six days, and when the truck began transporting the cats to the slaughterhouse, they intervened and called the police, according to the report.

Images published by The Paper showed rescued cats resting in larger cages at the shelter.

An activist quoted by the newspaper said that the illegal trade can sell a pound of cat meat for around $4 by passing it off as mutton and pork. Each cat weighs approximately four to five pounds after being processed.

«Some people will do whatever it takes because it is profitable», said Gong Jian, an activist who is setting up a shelter for stray cats in Jiangsu, speaking to The Paper.

Another activist, Han Jiali, who claimed to have been involved in stopping the truck, told the Chinese news agency that this was not the first time and that she had already stopped similar illegal operations in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Calls for stronger protection

The report triggered a new wave of concern over animal rights and food safety on Chinese social media, with many calling for stricter oversight by the authorities.

The country has historically struggled with a long series of food and safety scandals.

A recently exposed food scandal involved a rat's head found in a school meal at a university. Local authorities initially insisted it was a piece of duck neck, but amid fears of a cover-up, provincial investigators were called in and determined otherwise.

While China has laws regulating and protecting livestock and endangered animals, there is no general law against animal cruelty involving pets and stray dogs and cats.

Animal rights and environmental groups have long campaigned against the use of animal parts — including those of many endangered species — in traditional medicine. Opposition to an annual dog meat festival in Yulin, in the western autonomous region of Guangxi, is also growing.

«Animals have no rights and there is no guarantee of food safety», wrote one of the hundreds of users participating in the recent debate.

The topic was accessed five million times on Sunday alone.

In 2021, local authorities came under criticism after several pets were euthanized following their owners testing positive for Covid. A particular incident, in which a healthcare worker beat a corgi to death with a shovel, triggered an outburst of outrage.

«I hope the country can soon enact an animal protection law», said another user in response to the latest scandal.