(CN) Cat rescue puts felines on the lam

[Guest guest]

Cat rescue puts felines on the lam

By Fei Lai

Shanghai Daily

2008-9-3

 

A GROUP of animal lovers became embroiled in a bizarre confrontation as its

members rescued more than 800 cats destined for the dinner table over the

weekend.

 

Six volunteers from the Shanghai Animal Protection Association confronted cat

dealers in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, and spent a day and a night trying to

rescue about 1,500 cats.

 

The animals were being loaded onto a container truck that was due to travel to

Guangdong Province.

 

Liu Xiaoyun, one of the volunteers, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that the cats

were caged in about 70 bamboo boxes, about 20 to a box.

 

The volunteers managed to unlock about 40 cages, releasing about 800 of the

animals.

 

" But we don't know where the remaining cages are, " Liu said. " Most probably,

they are on their way to Guangdong. "

 

Liu said the group received a tip last Friday that the cats were at a fruit

wholesale market in Jiaxing. When they arrived at the market, cat traders were

loading cages onto the truck.

 

" Shill cries of cats echoed continuously, " Liu said. " We asked the mongers not

to send the cats, but they wouldn't listen. So I called the police. "

 

The dealers told police that all the cats were bought from a pet market and they

would be raised in Guangdong.

 

However, Liu said the method of caging so many animals in a confined space was

obviously cruel.

 

" The cats' sad and shrill screams made us heartbroken, " Liu said. " In spite of

the cat dealers' protests, we managed to release quite a few cats.

 

" The cats would have had no food or drink for several days. We immediately

conducted emergency aid by giving water to them. "

 

Liu said about 10 female cats had given birth. Some kittens died immediately

after birth.

 

She said the cats remained helpless under a burning sun. " When we released them,

the cats jumped out in all directions at once. They've suffered so much, " Liu

said.

 

The dealers showed police animal quarantine certificates and insisted on moving

the remainder of the cats. With no animal protection laws to refer to, police

were powerless to stop the remaining cats from being driven away.

 

Shanghai Animal Protection Association President Zhang Yi appealed to society to

cultivate better dining habits and to treat all animals more humanely.

 

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=372408 & type=Metro

-

Second Chance Animal Aid, Shanghai, has an article on their site about this

incident. They warn viewers that the 'content is upsetting and graphic'.

 

Cat trappers near Shanghai:

 

http://www.scaashanghai.org/cats_trapped_in_shanghai.shtml

-

The Guangzhou cat site has information in Chinese and photos on their bbs board.

Upsetting photos.

 

http://www.gzcat.org/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=13 & id=42093 & page= & star=1