Human use: Police rescue 150 cats from pot in China

Animal rights group Humane Society International (HSI) said police rescued nearly 150 cats intended for human consumption in eastern China.

The US-based association said in a statement on Tuesday that the felines were trapped in rusty cages when police found them in the city of Jinan in Shandong province.

Sparrows were baited into cages and a remote control was used to close the traps as soon as the cat entered, said an activist from VShine, a local animal rights group.

“It is shocking to see the state they are in. Many of them are devastated,” another activist, Mr. Huang, was quoted as saying in the HSI statement. “It was also a big shock that we discovered dozens of live sparrows being used as bait to attract cats.”

Most of the rescued felines are considered pets and sent to shelters after being rescued, the statement said.

Activists also found 31 sparrows — a protected species in the country — and released them into the wild.

China has no specific law to punish animal cruelty. But suspects can be prosecuted for poaching birds, stealing cats or violating animal disease prevention rules.

According to HSI, about 10 million dogs and four million cats are killed for human consumption every year in the country.

Every year in June, the city of Yulin in Guangxi (southern) province holds a dog meat festival during the summer solstice. Cats are also sold there to eat.

However, these meats are rarely consumed in China. These are mainly located in parts of the southern provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Consumption is gradually decreasing as the number of pets increases.

China bans wildlife consumption and trade in 2020

The cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai (southern) in Guangdong have banned the use of dogs and cats since April. They are the first in China to take such a step.