Our Compass

Editor’s Note: This is a translation, I have not edited in order to maintain the content of the original published article. Videos are below, four with English subtitles, full-length with Chinese subtitles. For those who condemn this practice, the US and other countries subject non-human animals to equally-reprehensible conditions including eviscerating, dismembering, and skinning animals while they are fully conscious. Non-human animals endure barbaric surroundings in CAFOs and other “breeding and boarding” sites. The only difference is the species/breed:

• EARTHLINGS
• Animal Wrongs
• They die piece by piece : Investigation reveals rampant cruelty in industrial slaughterhouses

From Facebook (must have valid Facebook account to view) & Shanghaiist

As living standards have risen, sections of the Chinese populace have become more picky about what should be determined as food. And of the animals hovering in the pet/food debate.

San Hua by amateur filmmaker Guo Ke, is the first of its kind – a full documentary on the country’s cat meat industry. It follows the entire trade, from cat snatchers in Shanghai and to the restaurants of Guangzhou. It premiered in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou at the end of July 2010 , with an aim to “let more people know the truth – to spread the news as far as possible.”Guo Ke photographic film director said, “If the entire material degree holders is all bloody, and ultimately into the film, it will be only 60% of entire audience will come. We do not want to promote violence and cruelty, our only purpose is to restore the most authentic chain about eat cats. ”  Chain in the eat cats behind, it is the Food Safety Act and the Animal Protection Act of embarrassment.  And the truth is… Well, that people in Guangzhou eat cats because it’s “delicious” and they never kept them as pets when they were kids. And frankly, the only “food safety” grounds people have brought up are the tenuous connection between Civet cats and SARS – which not only wasn’t completely proven, but also is just scientifically misguided to begin with. Civets are from an entirely different family classification from domestic cats – it’d be like comparing cows to camels.

More than 300 cats are kept in small wooden cages.

That’s probably not the truth that Guo Ke wanted to reveal to the world in his documentary. Granted, some of the practices are disturbingly cruel (“The worse you treat them , the better they taste,” one cook says in the documentary, “It makes sure the blood gets into the meat”), but is it any worse than how we slaughter pigs, cows or really anything else?

The one argument I can make against cat meat is that these cats are being taken off the street, and therefore may be some poor unsuspecting person’s pet. Also – since they aren’t from a controlled environment, the possibility of parasites and other nasties making their way into the meat is much higher.

“As long as people eat cats, some people grab the cat”

Jiangsu Hotel in Shanghai, the edge of a small alley, every day before the dawn, and out of here and scooters to more up suddenly. They are alway action alone, the back of scooters on both sides, often full to the brim of the bag hanging. If here isn’t with their old friend – the Shanghai cat saver, no one can recognize, like a dolphin in those bags, piled full shape of cabbage, is a cat, a live cat. The starting point of this film . Guo Ke and video documentary directer investigation about  cat traders, at the asking that the name of Shanghai’s largest traders “Zhang Jeng An”, since  this person belongs to devil head of the Shanghai inner trafficking field, so never easy to appear surface, Guo Ke did not take his picture. 6 o’clock every morning, Zhang’s people will come here to make a cat deal transactions. “The past is a 5 RMB for trade each cta, then the prices raise to 8 RMB, now is 12 RMB !!.” Traders told him, all cat collect from  Jiangsu hotels, it is  close over a small alley, the first will be shipped to a wholesale fruit market in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. There, Shanghai ‘s cat and Suzhou, Wuxi and other places’ cats will get onto the same truck, they will be transported to Guangzhou.

…some of the practices are disturbingly cruel, but is it any worse than how we slaughter pigs, cows or really anything else?

“December 18, 2009, we transported the cat quietly tracking a small truck to it at the wholesale fruit market in Jiaxing, which we intend to negotiate with the driver jumped out and, suddenly, the driver turned around and transferred to back open. Their vigilance high, the discovery of a suspicious vehicle behind the track, the retracement to accelerate. “Ke Guo recalls the day of transport vehicles and cat nursing group started a highway chase Force Station, on the highway, cat care team can not easily action until after wangjiangjing toll station, cat care team to find time to intercept the vehicle.

Shanghai Volunteer Liu Xiaoyun about her personal experience.

On the cat car, Guo Ke saw more than 300 cats are kept in small wooden cages, squeeze could not move. The cats’ sad calls when the cats see the light, some cats have gotten the tail cut off, oozing blood, and some cats have lost consciousness because of excessive compression. Since then, Guo Ke in the film, shooting in 7 months, never captures any of the car to transport the cat again. “They found us to track and become more careful now – do not go highway – and change walking the side path,” Guo Ke said. Method of stealing cat to get a very traditional: cage with a pedal, which installed a sparrow, a cat see at night flopping wings of sparrows, clever cat cage will, when they entered the cage, the depressing pedal steel doors bang shut, most of the cats tail was the iron gate pinch-off, this is their moment of loss of freedom. Tell Aunt Min Guo Ke, in addition to blocking the cat outside the car, the Shanghai team’s old aunt cat care has also been selected to persuade well-meaning people diverted to steal a cat, but unfortunately had little effect.

RESOURCES

• What Can I Do?
• Vegan Guides
• Compassionate Cuisine