MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2006
Cat defenders storm Shenzhen restaurant
 SHENZHEN--About
40 cat-lovers backed by "a large crowd including children,"
according to China Daily, whom they gathered as they marched, stormed
the newly opened Fang Company Cat Meatball Restaurant in Shenzhen
on June 17, 2006, extracting a promise from the owner to serve cats
no more.
Zhang Jing and Song Yuanhui of the Southern Metropolis Daily reported
that "almost 100 animal rights defenders gathered in front
of the restaurant to protest," one day after the newspaper
published an exposé of how cats were killed there.
Visitors to Guangdong province, China, have often been appalled
since circa 1350 by local "Dragon and Tiger" cuisine,
combining the flesh of cats with snakes. As many as 10,000 cats
per day are eaten in the city of Guangzhou each winter, according
to recent estimates--but the Shenzhen Cat Net web site founder,
identified by China Daily only as "Isobel," may have sparked
a movement against the custom by carrying a white rose to the restaurant
in memory of the slaughtered cats.
"More than 10" supporters followed her, Zhang Jing and
Song Yuanhui wrote, holding banners and distributing handbills denouncing
both eating cats and eating dogs.
"The activists, mostly women, poured into the restaurant demanding
that the owner free the cats" they believed were on the premises,
said China Daily. "They burst into tears upon finding a skinned
cat in a refrigerator. There were no live cats in the restaurant,
as the owner, according to an eyewitness, relocated them to other
places."
"I cannot go on with my business, and I will not sell cat meat
any more," the restaurant owner reportedly pledged.
Among the activists was Gao Haiyun, Miss Shenzhen for 2005, who
according to China Daily told restaurant customers to "stop
eating cats and dogs and become civilized."
"After the cat meatball restaurant owner left," Zhang
Jing and Song Yuanhui said, "the protestors prepared to proceed
to another restaurant in Shawan." What happened there was not
reported.
Shenzhen Pets Association president Zhu Xiaofan pointed out the
need for affordable cat sterilization.
"Since cats have three or four times the reproductive capacity
of dogs, there are stray cats in every district," the Southern
Metropolis Daily noted. "The situation of stray cats is presently
unmanageable."
The restaurant raids came 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.
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