Shanghai: Restaurants are alleged serving cat meat

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Shanghai Daily 2006-01-06 CST

 

Restaurants are alleged serving cat meat

 

Restaurant diners may want to skip the lamb. Animal aid workers

alleged some restaurants in the city were serving cat meat that was

listed on menus as mutton.

 

The Shanghai Small Animal Association, one of the earliest and most

renowned NGOs in the city, said it has gathered enough evidence to

make the charge after a one-year investigation.

 

The claim has not been confirmed by police or other authorities.

 

The association said stray cats were being sold to vendors who

produced goods with the fur and sold the meat to restaurants.

 

Li Ruohai, the director of the association, said they launched the

investigation a year ago after they repeatedly noticed stray cats

were disappearing.

 

The association received frequent tips from its members or animal

lovers that they saw people catching stray cats and selling them to

food vendors.

 

Li said a team of volunteers from the association launched an

undercover investigation.

 

Progress was slow at first. But recently, one of the investigators

managed to get several pieces of " mutton " from a food vendor.

 

The meat was taken to a lab where one of the association's volunteers

works. A DNA test found cat meat in two of the 12 samples, Li said.

 

Li showed Shanghai Daily the written report from the lab. He claimed

it was strong evidence that stray cats were being eaten.

 

" The thieves are killing our efforts to save the stray animals, " Li said.

 

The association also said some of the animals were used for cat fur products.

 

Shanghai Daily searched auction Website eBay.com.cn for cat fur

items. Many goods including cat fur bags and clothes were available

on the Website.

 

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration didn't comment on the the

Shanghai Small Animal Association's DNA report, but said it is

illegal to sell cat meat.

 

" In China, animals such as sheep, cows, pigs and even dogs are listed

as legal food materials, but never cats, " said Gu Zhenhua, an

official with the FDA.

 

" We have no food safety standards for cat meat because it's not

supposed to be on the menu, " Gu said. " Without food safety and

quarantine checks, it's unsafe to serve cat meat. "

 

Gu said those who sell cat meat will be punished according to the law.

 

Gu also said there was no common procedure to distinguish cat meat

from other types of meat.

 

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South China Morning Post Friday, January 6, 2006

 

Cat meat dressed as mutton in street food, activists say

BILL SAVADOVE in Shanghai

 

Beware of cats in sheep's clothing: a Shanghai animal rights group

has claimed some kebab vendors are substituting cat meat for the

traditional mutton and selling the popular street food under false

colours.

 

The latest allegations, reported in two local newspapers yesterday,

are based on genetic testing of 13 kebab samples gathered by

Shanghai's Small Animal Protection Association.

 

Three of the samples appeared to be cat, based on testing by a

government-linked laboratory.

 

Li Ruohai, who manages volunteers workers with the association, said

some members had even visited slaughterhouses where cats were killed

for their meat. He declined to name the lab which carried out the

testing, citing confidentiality.

 

" We have reported this to many government departments such as the

Public Health Bureau, but they are not very helpful because there are

no relevant regulations, " he said.

 

Government officials in charge of food safety declined to comment

yesterday, while the health bureau said it bore no responsibility for

this issue.

 

The latest reports have sparked fear among the kebab-eating public.

 

" I used to eat street kebabs, but I stopped after my friend who owns

a restaurant told me some people use meat from stray cats and dogs.

He said it was common for street vendors and small restaurants in

suburban areas, " said Jimmy Tang, a worker at a logistics company.

 

" I didn't feel there was any difference in the taste of the meat, but

it is disgusting and cruel. "

 

Mixing mutton fat with cat meat, which was then roasted for use in

kebabs or cooked as hot pot, would make it smell like lamb, reports

said. Some people also sold cat meat as rabbit meat.

 

Rumours of " hanging a goat's head, selling cat meat " have persisted

for years in Shanghai, becoming a kind of urban myth. Still,

government officials have warned about eating food from roadside

vendors due to concerns it might be unsanitary.

 

Both cat and dog are eaten on the mainland. Shanghai newspapers have

previously said rings of cat-catchers buy cats for 2 or 3 yuan apiece

and resell them for 15 yuan to markets in southern provinces.

 

Shanghai animal protection groups say they notice the number of stray

cats falls sharply in the winter, when more people eat lamb to stay

warm as temperatures drop.

 

This, coupled with the sudden disappearance of large numbers of

strays in residential neighbourhoods, has led activists to believe

someone is catching the animals.

 

The Oriental Morning Post said the number of products such as

clothing that made use of cat hair and skin was increasing, and the

meat was a natural byproduct of the growing industry.

 

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