(CN) Guangzhou bans eating snakes-- ban helps cats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

 

 

Guangzhou bans eating snakes--

ban helps cats

 

GUANGZHOU--Guangzhou bureau of forestry director Guo Qinghe

suppressed human consumption of cat meat during the first weekend of

November 2007 by announcing on local television his intent to enforce

a four-year-old Guangzhou city ordinance against eating snakes. " It

is illegal for companies, restaurants and individuals to sell live

snakes, snake meat, and related foods, " Guo said, not mentioning

cats, but in case there was any doubt about what he meant, Zheng

Caixiong of the official government newspaper China Daily spelled it

out.

" The popular Cantonese dish longhudou or 'dragon duels with

tiger' has been banned, " wrote Zheng Caixiong. " The delicacy

derives its name from snake and cat meat. Apart from having their

snakes and snake products confiscated, those caught flouting the ban

will be fined between 10,000 yuan ($1,300) and 100,000 yuan

($13,000). "

The minimum fine was set at approximately 1,000 times the

current restaurant price of longhudou, according to information

e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE by Anhui Medical University professor of

epidemiology and social medicine Zu Shuxian.

" The Guangzhou city government banned the sale of snake and

snake-related dishes in the wake of the Sudden Acute Respiratory

Syndrome outbreak in 2003, " Zheng Caixiong reminded, " following

revelations that the corona virus might have come from snakes, civet

cats and other wild animals used in Cantonese dishes. Many

restaurants subsequently resumed serving longhudou when the health

threat receded. Demand for the dish peaks between September and

December, " Zheng Caixiong said, " when snakes take on more flesh for

the cold. "

Longhudou has been served in Guangzhou, the capital of

Guangdong province, since circa 1350. Guangdong is the only part of

China where cats are often consumed. Published estimates forwarded

by Zu Shuxian project the sale for consumption of from 3,000 to

10,000 cats per market day, from the end of October through the end

of March, for an annual total of about five million.

The longhudou ban did not totally halt cat consumption. " I

suspect that another popular dish--Dragon (snake), Tiger (cat),

Phoenix (chicken) soup--will still be sold, minus the Dragon, "

e-mailed Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson.

Guo acted at a time when snake consumption has not been

controversial, but less than a week before Guangzhou hosted the 2nd

China Companion Animal Symposium, organized by the Animals Asia

Foundation, funded by the Humane Society International division of

the Humane Society of the U.S., and attended by representatives of

39 humane societies from around China.

Guo also acted as China moves toward trying to eliminate

potential embarrassments during the run-up toward the 2008 Olympic

Games in Beijing, and after three and a half years of unprecedented

activism against cat consumption appeared to demonstrate broad public

support for a ban, even in Guangzhou and other nearby cities.

A dramatic series of cat rescues began in Shenzen on June 17,

2006, when Shenzhen Cat Net web site founder, identified by China

Daily only as " Isobel, " carried a white rose to the newly opened

Fang Company Cat Meatball Restaurant. Starting with " more than 10 "

supporters, according to China Daily, including Gao Haiyun, Miss

Shenzhen for 2005, " Isobel " had about 40 cat-lovers with her when

she reached the restaurant, backed by " a large crowd including

children, " China Daily reported. Storming the restaurant, they

extracted a pledge from the owner that he would not sell cat meat any

more.

In early 2007, recounted Zhang Kun of China Daily, " a truck

packed with cats was stopped in Suzhou, where two crates of cats

were rescued. A train car was found to be loaded with live cats in

the Shanghai South Railway Station, but left despite protests from

local animal protectors. "

Then, in July, " cat lovers in suburban Shanghai's Xinzhuang

area stopped a truck carrying 840 cats to diners in Guangdong

Province, " Zhang Kun wrote. Activists as far away as Beijing teamed

up to relay the cats to safety, provide veterinary care, and place

them in adoptive homes.

The rescues began about two years after the formation of the

Chinese Cats Protection Network, now called the Chinese Companion

Animal Protection Network.

Expanded to 26 member societies, CCAPN in January 2006 began

organizing well-publicized protests against dog and cat eating,

starting in Guangzhou, following up in four other cities " with very

optimal response from public, " according to Jia Meng of the Centre

for Animal Welfare and Ethics at the University of Queensland School

of Veterinary Science in Gatton, Australia.

Why did Guo reiterate the existing prohibition on eating

snakes if the real intent was to ban cat consumption?

Observers of Chinese politics often note that Chinese

official pronouncements tend to avoid any hint of being made in

response to pressure, either from outside China or from within. To

appear to act under pressure, in classic Confuscian political

thinking, is to show the possibility of governmental weakness,

perhaps leading to disobedience.

However, Confuscian political theory also calls for

introducing change by taking the path of least resistance, seeking

to bring about voluntary conformity to the new norm before attempting

to compel it. This is typically done by invoking recollection of an

existing law, custom, or tradition.

Does Guo's action hint that Guangzhou may soon introduce an

actual ban on eating cats? Only time will tell, but of note is that

the Chinese federal government and Beijing municipal governments have

in recent years been markedly more tolerant of animal advocacy and

even of protests such as the Shenzhen. Suzhou, and Shanghai cat

rescues, than of activism in other causes.

The China Companion Animal Sym-posium attendees on November

11 unanimously approved resolutions against cat-eating, dog-eating,

killing dogs and cats for fur, and the sporadic mass round-ups and

massacres of unlicensed and free-roaming dogs that many Chinese

cities conduct--often in response to rabies outbreaks--instead of

maintaining standing animal control departments. The China Companion

Animal Symposium attendees also urged the Chinese government to

improve access to dog and cat vaccination and sterilization, and to

veterinary drugs, and asked universities to add companion animal

medicine to their veterinary curriculums.

 

Dog rabies

 

But the conference resolutions, though covered by Chinese

media, were up-staged in reportage distributed by the official

Xinhua news service by a press conference held in Beijing by the

national Ministry of Health. Without directly criticizing municipal

dog purges, Ministry of Health spokesperson spokesman Mao Qun'an

pointed toward a surge in canine rabies cases in recent years, and

recommended strategic changes.

" When medical experts judge that an epidemic has become very severe

and constitutes a threat to many people, killing dogs is an important

measure to safeguard health and contain the epidemic, " Mao Qun'an

said. " But this measure should be adopted in a prudent way, "

avoiding harm to healthy pets.

" Most rabies cases occur in rural areas, " Mao Qun'an noted,

citing the Bijie area in northwest Guizhou province, Guigang in the

southeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Nanchong in

northeast Sichuan province as the three largest cities with

significant rabies outbreaks.

The most afflicted provinces, Mao Qun'an said, are the

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, and

Guangdong--all among the southern provinces where dogs are commonly

eaten and are often raised in factory farm conditions. Dogs raised

for consumption are not required to be vaccinated.

Mao Qu'an said that rabies had killed 8,403 people in China

in 2004-2006, accounting for 30.1% of the total deaths in China from

infectious diseases, and that rabies occurred in 910 counties in 23

provinces in 2007, up from 98 counties in 1996. Through October,

2,717 human rabies cases had been reported in 2007, 2.4% more than

in 2006.

Guangdong, the longtime hub of dog-eating as well as

cat-eating, has historically sought to suppress keeping pet dogs.

This has been in part to protect the dog meat industry from rabies

outbreaks, and may also have been to avoid having dogs become

generally perceived as pets rather than food. The Guangdong pet dog

licensing fees until September 2007 were the highest in China:

10,000 yuan for initial registration, plus an annual management fee

of 6,000 yuan.

In September, however, Guang-dong reduced the fees 90%, to

1,000 yuan for initial registration plus an annual management fee of

600 yuan. " Blind people who need guide dogs are exempt, " wrote Liang

Qiwen of China Daily. " Widows, widowers or elderly people with

little financial support can request a reduction or exemption.

People who have infertile dogs will be allowed to pay half the fees, "

a strong incentive for dog sterilization.

" The old fees had little effect in controlling the number of

pet dogs, " Liang Qiwen observed. " In fact many people continued to

keep dogs secretly, ignoring the fees. "

Of the officially estimated 100,000 pet dogs in Guangzhou, Liang

Qiwen wrote, " only 842 were registered by the end of last year. Many

people do not have their dogs inoculated against diseases because

they are afraid of being fined for not registering them. "

" We are changing the old policy of controlling pet dogs in

the hope that the new one will be more effective, " said Guangzhou

mayor Zhang Guangning. --Merritt Clifton

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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