Suspect lures cats caught in China to be sold as bait
Most Chinese don’t eat cats or dogs, but it’s estimated that as many as four million cats are killed each year for the meat trade.
An international animal welfare organization has reported that about 150 cats destined for slaughterhouses have been rescued by police in eastern China.
Animals were stuffed into rusty cages when found by police in Jinan city, Shandong province, Humane Society International (HSI) Said In a statement dated 30 August 2022.
According to activists at local animal rights group VShine, the gang placed the sparrows in cages as bait and used remote controls to close the traps as soon as each sparrow entered.
“It was shocking to see their condition. Many of them were emaciated and crying,” the activist, who gave only his surname Huang, said in a statement to HSI.
“The discovery of dozens of live sparrows used as bait to lure cats was also a big shock.”
Most of the rescued cats are believed to have been domesticated and have been sent to local animal shelters, the statement added.
Activists also found 31 protected sparrows in China at the site and released them back into the wild.
China has no laws against animal cruelty, but suspects can be punished for hunting birds, stealing property, and violating anti-animal epidemic regulations.
About 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are killed for human consumption in China each year, according to HSI.
In some parts of China, dog and cat meat is considered a delicacy, and although the practice is steadily declining as pet ownership increases, the meat trade is still a threat to criminal gangs. It continues to bring in enough profit to steal the
Every June, the southern Chinese city of Yulin hosts a Dog Meat Festival where live dogs and cats are sold for human consumption.
The tradition of eating dogs and cats in southern China’s Guangdong and Guangxi provinces dates back thousands of years.
“These are the two major hotspots of cat meat eating in China,” said Dr. Peter Lee, China policy expert at HSI, in a statement.
“In other parts of mainland China, cat meat is not part of the food culture.”
The Covid-19 outbreak seems to have further reduced appetite for meat in cats and dogs. The disease was linked to a market in central Wuhan that sells live animals for food.
China will ban wildlife consumption and trade in 2020.
The Guangdong cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai banned the consumption of dogs and cats in April of that year, becoming the first cities in China to do so.
Thumbnail image: This photo, taken on August 25 and released by Vshine/Humane Society International on August 31, 2022, shows 150 cats rescued by police from the cat meat trade in Jinan, eastern China’s Shandong province. (Vshine/Humane Society International via AFP)
Headline image: (Vshine/Humane Society International via AFP)
Source: TRTWorld and institutions
https://www.trtworld.com/life/suspects-luring-cats-to-be-sold-as-food-caught-in-china-60328?utm_source=other&utm_medium=rss Suspect lures cats caught in China to be sold as bait
