Libertarian Vegan

About 40 animal lovers took to the streets of Bejing to protest the slaughtering of cats for food.  In a letter to the provincial government in Guangdong, group leader Wang Hongyao urged, “We must make them correct this uncivilized behavior.”  They are trying to get the government to crack down on traders and restaurants trafficking in cats, but there are no laws against it.

Huang, a butcher in Guangdong province said, “Cats have a strong flavor. Dogs taste much better, but if you really want cat meat, I can have it delivered by tomorrow.” She explained,   “The cat meat we sell comes from legitimate sources.  It’s from cat farms. The animals are raised the same way cows are.”

The clash of ideologies stems from the time that the Communist Party banned pet ownership, condemning it as “bourgeois.”  At the time, most people were also too poor to own a cat or dog.

The actions of the protesters were ignited by a recent story in the Southern Metropolis Daily - a Guangdong newspaper.  It detailed the trade in cats for meat, including how 1,000 cats are transported by train each day to Guangdong.  The cats come from Nanjing, a major trading center for cats.

As pets are often stolen to be sold for meat, pet owners no longer allow their cats outdoors.  Animal protection groups have occasionally ambushed the trucks filled with cats crammed in bamboo cages, and recently were able to release hundreds from a truck.

 Source - Associated Press Pet lovers protest cats on the menu in China December 18, 2008.

If there was ever a cat slaughter business in the U.S. millions of people would be outraged and disgusted, but as the butcher in the story said, the cats “are raised the same way cows are.” So then, what really is the difference?  Are cats lives worth more because they can be domesticated?

As we are disgusted that countries like China eat cats and dogs, so countries such as India, where cows are revered as holy, are surely disgusted by our treatment of them.  What is the difference?  We give these creatures’ lives different net worth, but why?  Either all animals should be fair game for food, or none.  Meat is meat.  If you’re going to eat flesh, why does it matter what animal it comes from?  If presented with a cooked piece of meat, perhaps mixed into a dish, could you tell by looking at it was from a cat or not?

I guess I’ve never seen cooked cat meat, so perhaps you could.  But that’s not a chance I’d like to take.

This is my cat, Ashford.  I can pretty much guarantee he doesn’t want to be eaten.

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