More than 400 caged cats that were to be sold in south China for
their fur and meat were rescued by a group of pet lovers who broke
into a Tianjin store on Sunday.
About 30 members of the Tianjin-based group that goes by the
English name "I Cat Home" broke into a shop in the Minquanmen pet
market in Tianjin.
"We knew in January that the store owner has bought a lot of
cats for 15 yuan (about US$2) each. The cats were packed into the
small shop and were to be sold in Guangzhou for fur and meat," said
23-year-old Wang Yue, founder of "I Cat Home", who accused the shop
owner of cruelty.
The group, which included people who'd recently lost their cats,
saved 415 cats that were crammed into small cages, reported
Monday's Beijing News. The shop owner wasn't present
during the raid and couldn't be reached for comment.
The newspaper said the owner had agreed to hand over the cats to
the pet lovers on Saturday night.
After their rescue the cats were taken to the headquarters of
the Beijing-based China Small Animal Protection Association where
they were fed and vaccinated, a volunteer at the association named
Zhao Lei told Xinhua. "We're already advertising for kind-hearted
people to adopt a cat," he said.
Wang Yue and her friends may face trouble of their own from
local police as they pulled down the store's two-meter-high gate
and had "physical conflicts" with police who were called by nearby
shop owners, reported the Beijing News quoting market
security guards.
"These young people were just too hotheaded," said a vender in
the market. "Helping animals by causing violence against people
seems inappropriate to me."
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2007)