Protesters shut cat meat restaurant

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Protesters shut cat meat restaurant

From correspondents in Beijing

June 18, 2006

 

This story is from our news.com.au network Source:

Reuters

 

BANNER-wielding animal rights protesters swarmed into

a restaurant serving cat meat in the southern Chinese

city of Shenzhen and forced it to shut, Xinhua news

agency said today.

 

The 40 or so, mainly female demonstrators – holding

banners reading " cats and dogs are friends of human

beings " – entered the Fangji Cat Meatball restaurant

and demanded the owner free any live cats on the

premises, Xinhua said.

 

There were none in the building as the owner had

already moved them out, it said. But some burst into

tears upon finding a skinned cat in a fridge.

 

" I cannot go on with my business and I will not sell

cat meat any more, " the restaurant owner was quoted as

saying, though he defended his trade by saying eating

cat in Guangdong province was a tradition.

 

The organiser of the protest, identified only as

Isobel, the founder of a cat protection website, said

the restaurant had been chosen because it killed cats

in the street and it was " very bad for the students

from nearby schools " .

 

A local beauty queen, Miss Shenzhen 2005, also took

part, calling on people to " stop eating cats and dogs

and become civilised " , Xinhua said.

 

Many Chinese, particularly in the south, believe dogs

and cats are good warming foods to eat during the

winter.

 

But China is developing a nascent animal rights

movement as more people raise pets, which during the

country's Communist heyday was frowned upon as a

bourgeois activity.

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19508221-1702,00.html

 

 

 

 

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