An ever-increasingly prosperous nation, China is so large it can barely address the issues of human rights in a meaningful way. So it’s not surprising that animal rights is merely a term that do not have much meaning either. A country that adopts child labor practices, neglects the poor and disenfranchised, oppresses the Tibetans, consumes companion animals, cuts off fins from sharks and throws them back in the ocean to drown, how can we expect anything less?
With the Olympics coming, Beijing is getting ready–cleaning up the streets, beautifying the city, demonstrating its industrial power to the world. But one act in particular is outright barbaric– the killings of cats. This is two-fold: 1) the government uses scare tactics by terrifying its citizens that cats carry diseases, into surrendering the animals; and 2) use the Olympics as an excuse to clean up the streets by exterminating them. China has once did this with dogs for fear of rabies and SARS, and the way in which they destroy these poor animals are cruel and disgusting.
Without the cats, mice and rats will increase by numbers, and the chances of the rodents carrying and transmitting diseases will be even more detrimental.
Right now as we speak, cats are rounded up by the thousands into large crates and trucked off to what animal welfare groups describe as extermination camps on the edges of the city. The estimated number of extermination will be in the half a million, just over a year after the Chinese were criticized for beating and killing stray dogs across the country and selling them for aphrodisiac effects in their meat. The U.K.’s Daily Mail reports that these cats go to the camps, if not destroyed right away, are trapped and crammed into cages and waiting to die slow, agonizing deaths. Let’s just call this Beijing’s own cat holocaust.
I’m Chinese, and I am ashamed of my country and not only because of the cats, obviously. I will never visit there until something changes for the better. Look at the picture above, how does it not break your heart completely? Please help by spreading the word of this atrocity.
Filed under: animal cruelty, dogs and cats, international issues , animal rights, beijing, china, diseases, dog and cat meat, extermination, human rights, killing cats, olympics, SARS
How awful for these poor cats. China really needs to get its act together. Great post
Ksawyer215
very thoughtful commentary. It really is a sad situation. I hope this gets more exposure in the main stream press. Forwarded to a few people.
So tragic. They never fail to surprise me with human/animal right issues.
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Reenergize.
Thank you. I’m not sure what point was missing though. The point is, it is cruel to exterminate animals, especially companion animals under false pretenses for the sake of the Olympics, or for any other matter. China is notorious for such practices, they don’t even have great human rights, so it’s not surprising that animals have none either.
if you surch this on youtube you can really see the extent of what happens.
i don’t think i want to see it. We all know how awful it is. Can’t stomach it.
Care to quote your sources Jenny? And please, for Pete’s sake don’t tell us it’s from PETA.
Peta is hardly ever the source of my posts. This particular one of Beijing’s Cat Death Camp is a story from The Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-528694/Olympics-clean-Chinese-style-Inside-Beijings-shocking-death-camp-cats.html
fuck you barbarians!
anyways china i hate u..why do u eat cats….and dogs thats wrong
thats not normal. how could someone kill something as cute and cuddly as a cat? its like eating a guinea pig!
omg…poor cat’s. I can’t beleive someone would do that….
That is terrible. What jerks they are! Cats have mroe right then that. Anywhere. If China is so powerful and smart and have loads of money, instead of putting these cats in DeathCamps and killing them, why don’t they put that money to good sue and care for the cats, spay or nueter them so they don’t reproduce (thats a good idea, ever think of that? Nope, didn’t think so.) and put them in shelters for people who actually give a damn about cats adopt them. So there you go. Brilliant idea for you suckers!
All of you are hypocrites, unless you’re 100% vegetarian! What’s the difference between eating beef and cat? Cows aren’t as intelligent, aren’t as cute? Can’t be domesticated? The bottom line is, make sure you’re not guilty of eating meat, because then you’re just as cruel as these people, you’re cruel as the next guy. Meat is meat, and it doesn’t matter what animal it comes from!
First of all, livestock farming is just as cruel and the practice of that needs to change and is changing. Secondly, meat is meat, then by saying that you are saying we should eat people too. The fact is, if you read the article carefully, it’s the WAY these animals are treated on the way to slaughter that is unacceptable. Cats, dogs, cows, pigs,in that regard suffer the same unnecessary cruelty. If you’ve ever owned a dog or cat, which you probably haven’t and don’t care to, you would understand the outrage that millions of people in modern countries feel against such a matter. If you have any compassion at all, this would bother you. I am a carnivore, but I eat organically. I am on my way to becoming a vegetarian, however, if I am to consume meat, I want to do it as humanely as possible. So there.
WTF EAT CHICKEN LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE YOU SICK FUCKS!
:’( why do they have to do this.
this has to stop .
the bit that made me upset the most was “Right now as we speak, cats are rounded up by the thousands into large crates and trucked off to what animal welfare groups describe as extermination camps on the edges of the city.”
While I do NOT eat cats or dogs, you people have to realize that in a lot of other countries (NOT in the USA or Europe), that eating animals of ALL kinds of not only the “norm”, but in some cases it’s quite necessary, due to population growth, lack of food supplies, and so forth.
I love how Americans and Europeans always like to throw the first stones at people who are so different than they are, calling them barbarians, savages, sick fucks and so on.
This is because most of you have NEVER been to a foreign country, nor have you ever experienced what it’s like to live a different life in a different land, with “strange” customs, foods, languages, etc.
I’ve been to over 31 different countries so far, and it never seems to amaze me how much we are all SO different, yet SO much alike…
Holden, I admire that you’re so well traveled and appreciate the fact that you’ve experienced many cultures and advocate for tolerance. I am of Chinese descent and HAVE been to China.
No one is saying that the Chinese people do not deserve to find what’s necessary to survive hunger and poverty. If you look into this subject more closely, you will discover that dogs and cats in China are viewed upon as aphrodisiac delicacy, etc., and is in NO WAY a source for survival. Family pets sometimes get absconded and sold in black markets for fur and meat.
The lack of responsibility for animal control contributes to overpopulation of dogs and cats, and as a result, diseases spread and many animals being put to death. In cases of an epidemic, these dogs and cats are the first to become scapegoat. They are beaten and left to die, cats are boiled alive, and many more ways you could not imagine.
If you live in a western society, you should be outraged at this, yes, “barbaric” culture when it comes to animals. As you know, here we revere dogs, cats, etc. Yes we should all be tolerant of our neighboring countries and respect their ways, however, this is absolutely NOT one of them. What you are saying is, “hey, it’s their country, they can do whatever they want”.