Chinese trying to stop the sale and consumption of cats
We-ell, that's not precisely true. In most of the country, the Chinese find the idea disgusting... it's only in Guangzhou, the southernmost province, where they love them some cats.
Guangzhou is the province famous for the exotic food on the menu... in addition to cats, they'll eat anything that walks, flies, hops or swims, as long as it's fresh.
Someone told me that they have a dish called 'the three squeaks': it's baby mice, which squeak once when you pick them up with chopsticks, once when you cook them -alive- in hot oil, and a final time when you bite into it.
As for cats, they've run out in Guangzhou, which is free of stray animals, as you might believe. To get their feline fix, they've resorted to kidnapping cats from the streets of northern China, shipping more than 10 000 everyday to the south.
The growing middle class, though, doesn't like this one bit, having grown used to the idea of cats as cuddly pets. The LA Times reports on the subject:
"Many of the rescue efforts are directed by Lu Di, a nearly 80-year-old woman who used to work for Mao Tse-tung, reading to the Chinese leader in his final years when his eyesight was poor.
"You can judge how advanced a civilization is by the way it treats its animals," said Lu, paraphrasing Gandhi. She founded the Small Animal Protection Assn., which she runs out of the Beijing apartment she shares with 15 cats, more than a dozen dogs, a quail, a pigeon and a monkey."
"You can judge how advanced a civilization is by the way it treats its animals," said Lu, paraphrasing Gandhi. She founded the Small Animal Protection Assn., which she runs out of the Beijing apartment she shares with 15 cats, more than a dozen dogs, a quail, a pigeon and a monkey."
Gandhi was a smart cat and I think he hit the subject on the head... by that ruler, though, Western countries fall short as well, as our livestock is often kept in miserable, high-density factories.
Hopefully, the movement in China will gather some weight and convince the government to step it... it's unlikely to happen soon, as the Guangzhoui govt likes their cat meat, too:
""Cat meat is good for women. You can eat it in the summer or winter. It is very light. Men usually prefer dog. It is like yin and yang. Cat is yin and dog is yang," said customer Jiang Changlin, who works for the local government."
