(CN) Trying to get cat off the menu in China

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http://www.thestar.com/world/columnist/article/672031

 

 

 

The Star. 26 July 2009

 

 

 

Trying to get cat off the menu in China

 

 

 

Bill Schiller

 

 

 

FOSHAN, China-It's a sunny, sweltering morning at the Gui

 

Jiang Three Birds Wholesale Market, and the air is filled with

 

the anxious, high-pitched screams of cats.

 

For these fated felines, the end is nigh. This market is their

 

last way station on the road to someone's dinner plate.

 

Every day here, hundreds of cats are on sale for the culinary

 

trade surrounding this southern city, not far from Guangzhou

 

(formerly known as Canton), supplying meat for the Cantonese

 

appetite for cat.

 

Some are strays, some allegedly stolen from their pet owners -

 

but most are common alley cats. Thousands are shipped by truck

 

and train to southern China from other parts of the country.

 

All have one thing in common: they're about to enter the food

 

chain. Buyers arrive here early to haggle and hover over the

 

selection process as they would for any commodity.

 

There's more at this market, too: dog, donkey, foxes, peacock

 

and an array of exotica to sate the legendary Cantonese taste

 

for the wild. Shortly before 8 a.m. on a recent weekday

 

morning a no-nonsense woman from the local food industry

 

pulled up in a truck with one of her staff, determined to get

 

quality for money. When a vendor reached into a metal cage

 

with his iron vice-grips and seized one cat by the throat, she

 

waved him off:

 

" Not that one, it's too lean. "

 

The vendor released his grip and let the cat drop. Another was

 

chosen and promptly wrenched from the cage, swooped through

 

the air and - with the handler using one hand to grip it

 

firmly by the tail - stuffed through a tiny hole into a

 

fine-wired carton already crowded with cats.

 

Each cat had tried to make one last lunge to break free as it

 

was being yanked from the cage - but to no avail.

 

Every day here at Gui Jiang, the merchandise is weighed, the

 

money exchanged and the deals done. But some Chinese hope the

 

days of this trade are numbered. As China continues to develop

 

and build a solid middle-class, there is a growing awareness

 

of - and fondness for - house pets. And with that has come a

 

growing movement to put an end to cat eating.

 

In some cities that movement has exhibited daring. In cities

 

like Shanghai and Nanjing, for example, animal rights

 

advocates have launched raids on cat dealers and their

 

suppliers, swooping down on cat collection centres as well as

 

delivery points, even train stations. Armed with screwdrivers

 

and hammers they've pried open bamboo crates of cats,

 

liberating some, finding homes for others and even delivering

 

veterinary care.

 

" We don't support such radical means, " assures Wu Qingrong, a

 

37-year-old IT specialist who is part of a loosely knit group

 

of animal advocates in Guangzhou known as The Xixi Forest.

 

They are using education, instead, to try to persuade people

 

to end cat consumption.

 

" We want to change people's minds peacefully, " she says over

 

lunch, " especially the older generations. "

 

She and other volunteers visit elementary schools, apartment

 

blocks and subway stations handing out literature that

 

promotes seeing animals as friends - not food. " Our goal is to

 

teach people how to live harmoniously with animals, " she says.

 

Because there is no law in China prohibiting the trade of cats

 

for human consumption, education remains the best way to

 

tackle the issue, she says. " We don't believe that

 

demonstrating in front of restaurants, for example, will solve

 

the problem, " she adds. Nor would it likely succeed.

 

After all, the clientele that comes to Jia Hua Restaurant, a

 

glitzy, animated establishment on Guangzhou's Baogang Ave.,

 

come because it serves cat, crocodile, fox and other rare

 

dishes, often listed on its " Mountain Treasures " menu. An old

 

expression here in the province of Guangdong holds that any

 

animal " whose back faces the heavens " is fair game for eating

 

Elsewhere, people jokingly say the people of Guangdong will

 

eat, " anything on four legs except a table. "

 

One evening last week, however, a waitress at Jia Hua

 

explained that cat wasn't on the menu, and wouldn't be for

 

months. " We don't serve it in summer time, " she explained.

 

" It's really a winter dish. " The neighbourhood knows: in

 

winter months the restaurant displays its live cats in cages

 

on the street, in full view of passersby. But cat is easily

 

available in central Guangzhou along Wenming Rd.

 

There, " Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix Stew " a mix of snake, cat

 

and fowl, sells for just 13 Chinese yuan for a small bowl,

 

about $2.15. And a dish called " Old Cat Soup " is priced at

 

just 8 yuan - about $1.30. But there have also been published

 

reports of " Braised Cat " fetching as much a 148 yuan (more

 

than $24) at restaurants in nearby Dongguan.

 

China's Chengdu Business Daily estimated recently that as many

 

as 10,000 cats are consumed throughout Guangdong everyday.

 

But most say there is really no way to tell: state media have

 

said there is no government health inspection of cats for

 

human consumption. And no definitive survey of cat consumption

 

has ever been done. Late last year, however, Guangzhou's

 

Southern Metropolis Daily reported that in Nanjing, cat

 

catchers - referred to locally to locally as " cat fishermen " -

 

were earning at least 10 yuan per cat from wholesalers and

 

capturing as many as 20 cats per day.

 

On Friday at the Gui Jiang Three Birds market, customers were

 

paying up to 16 yuan per kilogram (about $2.65) for what they

 

considered to be top quality cat. By that estimation a

 

4-kilogram cat could retail for 64 yuan, the equivalent of

 

$10.50. Flora Feng, who runs an online pet supplies store,

 

said the trend among younger people in Guangdong, however -

 

" those born after 1980 " - is definitely away from cat.

 

" Younger people, especially, are choosing not to eat cat, " she

 

said. " For example, in many markets there are now more pet

 

shops than there are shops selling cat meat. "