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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: July-August 2007

Shanghai cat rescue is biggest yet in China

SHANGHAI--Rallied by Duo Zirong, 39, "cat lovers in suburban Shanghai's Xinzhuang area stopped a truck carrying more than 800 cats to diners in Guangdong Province," reported Zhang Kun of China Daily on July 10, 2007. The rescue was at least the third by opponents of cat-eating since June 2006, when activists stormed and closed the newly opened Fang Company Cat Meatball Restaurant in Shenzhen, winning a promise from the owner that he would no longer sell cat meat.

"Duo called the police and stopped one truck," Zhang wrote. "According to Duo, three trucks loaded with cats left before the police took action. Duo claimed many of the cats were hers, but the cat dealers presented documents showing they were from a farm in Anhui Province, with inspection and vaccination papers."

"We felt helpless, as China does not have a law against animal abuse," Shanghai Animal Protection Association representative Tao Rongfang told Lu Feiran of Shanghai Daily.

The truckers demanded 30,000 yuan for the cats, worth nearly $4,000 U.S. A crowd gathered, passed the hat, and eventually bought the cats for about $1,300, of which one unidentified woman put up half.

Recalled Zhang Kun, "Earlier this year, 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."

"In June," Zhang Kun wrote, "some volunteers working with the cats in Duo's house opened the gate to let out nearly 200 cats. Duo spotted the truck while searching for the cats."

Shanghai Daily appealed for cat adopters and donors to help accommodate the rescued cats.

"Anyone brave enough to venture into Duo's house would call it a nightmare," Shanghai Daily reported. "In addition to healthy cats, there are sick, lame, blind and paralyzed cats and kittens. Some are in heat. Animals are crammed into the dim, dilapidated two-story house, with wire mesh on the windows. Sheets are laundered daily but get filthy; the stench is unbearable. Duo is up to her neck cleaning, washing sheets, feeding milk to sick kittens, spraying room deodorizer, bathing the cats and saying sorry to neighbors for the trouble her cats cause. Her cats can sleep until their natural wake-up time and eat balanced, healthy pet food, while Duo gets only three to four hours sleep each night and eats instant noodles."

A former medical doctor, Duo is a Buddhist member of the Daur-speaking ethnic minority. Fewer than 140,000 Daur speakers remain in China, Mongolia, and parts of Russia. Her entire family are involved in cat rescue. They have moved "about a dozen times" due to friction with neighbors over cat odors and noises since Duo began taking in cats circa 1996, Lu Feiran wrote.

Her first cat was tortured and blinded by juvenile delinquents. That was a foreshadowing of the fate of her mother-in-law, Huo Huiying, a retired civil engineer.

"In July 2004, not long after Duo and her cats moved to Datong Village, Fengxian District," Shanghai Daily recounted, "Huo Huiying was beaten blind in a fight with neighbors who demanded money from Duo if she wanted to keep her cats alive. For Duo and her family, the next three years were a time of terror, extortion, death threats, threats to poison and kill the cats, and many fights and sieges by neighbors and urban management inspectors. There were power and water cut-offs," and more than 30 cats were killed by the would-be extortionists."

Sympathetic coverage of Duo's efforts by a variety of media was soon followed by explicit exposés in Shanghai Daily, the New Express, and syndicated coverage from the Xinhua news agency of how cats are tortured and boiled alive in Guangzhau restaurants. Furious reader response encouraged Shanghai Daily columnist Wang Yong to denounce the treatment of farm animals and fish.

While the rapid growth of dog-keeping in China has received official notice and increasingly friendly media coverage for nearly 10 years, the parallel rise in popularity of cat-keeping has only recently gained recognition, driven by the emergence of a well-developed network of web sites, online forums, and university-based cat clubs.

Beijing, one of the few Chinese cities with a western-style animal control department and dog shelters, is planning to add cat facilities, China Daily reported in April 2007. Subsidized clinics are to sterilize and vaccinate cats at half price, China Daily said. Beijing has as many as 400,000 feral cats, according to the Small Animal Protection Association.

The report closely followed a mention that "A pet hospital in Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province is now providing a free sterilization program for stray cats."