comment:
The
picture of this one cat reaching out and holding on to the
bamboo slat with her paw - a gesture no different to a
Human hand clinging to the bar of a prison - will stay with
me forever. And I always thought I had seen enough to last
me a lifetime. I know she is dead now, possibly skinned or
boiled alive in a country that is synominous around the
world for caring little to nothing for animals. Animals who
are, in every respect, at the mercy of us Humans - to be
used, abused, "produced" and murdered again at will and
whim. I listened to the radio earlier today, and 5 out of 6
bits of news were to do with money - the God of our time -
and not a word said about suffering and dying Humans and
animals; not a word said about the imminent climate
catastrophe capable of destroying life as we know it on
this planet.
Where
does such a world - such an upside-down world - leave the
animals ?
Man
is but one species of many, and yet he has managed to make
himself the master and murderer of all others. Is this a
world we still want to live in - even as members of the
privileged Human race ? No.
My
life is compromised by seeing all this horrendous suffering
every day. By the cold-blooded ignorance of people around
me. They worship something that cannot feel, does not
breathe, cannot be born or die - they forget that Human
life is also, these days, only a matter of what it is worth
in terms of hard cash. Stop to be useful for the economy,
for the country you live in, and you're meat that may as
well rot in the corner. Each of you, Ladies and Gentlemen,
to whom this is addressed, know this. Maybe there is one or
two among you who see things differently - who want things
to change - who are as sick as I am of the blood on all our
hands.
To
you I say: ACT. Save the lives of the innocent, of those on
4 legs and on 2. Protect the defenseless from abuse and
murder. And there is no one as defenceless as an animal in
our societies. It is your duty to protect their rights also
- the rights all of them were born with and which CANNOT be
taken from them, save by the hand of tyranny: A right to
life and freedom from pain, physical and mental. That is
the very least all beings walking this sad planet deserve.
No less will do.
* . * . *
PLEASE DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON THESE CATS - EVERYONE WHO
CARES ABOUT AN ANIMAL - PLEASE SIGN AND CROSS POST - THIS
HAS TO STOP - we have to speak out against atrocities like
this!!!
FORWARD
FAR AND WIDE -
www.thepetitionsite.com/1/over-1500-cats-trapped-in-shanghai-and-surr
Over
1500 Cats Trapped in Shanghai and Surrounding Region
for
Shipment to Southern China's Food and Fur Industries
"By
late afternoon, the crowd was dispersed and, sadly, the
remaining crates of cats appeared to be loaded onto a new
truck by the cat trappers.
Although there is often little hope of helping cats already
trapped and on their way to Guangdong, a focus of efforts
on spay / neuter and indoor cat campaigns will hopefully
someday reduce the numbers of available strays and
unwittingly friendly pets going to
market."
* . * . *
Jia Xing (Zhejiang Province, China)
30 August 2008
Some
of the over 1500 terrified cats trapped in and around
Shanghai for shipment to Guangdong for food and
fur.
On Friday, 29 August 2008, local animal rescuers located
several trucks with over seventy bamboo crates crammed with
nearly 1500 cats in Jia Xing, a small city in Zhejiang
Province, about an hour outside of Shanghai. These cats had
likely been trapped in parks, from housing compounds and
the street of Shanghai and neighbouring areas. Many of the
cats in the crates had collars on them – obviously people's
pets, possibly trapped just meters from their home. Their
destination was (and still is) Guangdong Province in
southern China, to be used for food and fur.
Photocopied "ownership" papers
The trucks were intercepted late at night in a parking lot
in an industrial section of town and as the cat trappers
attempted to load the trucks, rescuers called the police.
Some rescuers claimed to have lost their cat, while others
challenged the rather unofficial-looking photocopied
documents that the head of the cat smugglers produced to
support his claim that he owned the cats legitimately,
having paid RMB50,000 for Photocopied "ownership" papers
them (USD$7,320 / GBP£4,067), and that he was transporting
them all according to permit.
Regardless of the legality of transport permits, the
condition in which the cats were packed – crammed 20 or
more to a small crate with no room to move and no access to
food or water, while some newborns were being crushed to
death and other cats had died, was a shockingly cruel
sight.
Someone's
pet trapped for the food and fur trade
Dead
cat found in crate after others scrambled away
Over 15 hours of negotiations ensued, in which the local
rescuers refused to pay the smugglers for the cats (an
agonizingly tough approach, but buying them would fuel more
trapping for the "rescue market"). By mid-day Saturday, a
crowd of nearly 300 people had gathered. A local TV crew
filmed animal lovers feeding the cats through the slats of
the crates and watering them down to keep them cool.
With an obvious stalemate, increasingly terrified cries
coming from the crates and the deteriorating condition of
the 1500 cats, several of the crates were broken and cats
freed– albeit near a dangerous intersection without anybody
to provide follow-up care. At this point, the area was
cordoned off and further access to the cats blocked.
Row
upon horrific row of trapped cats in crates
A
handful of cats escape open crates
By late afternoon, the crowd was dispersed and, sadly, the
remaining crates of cats appeared to be loaded onto a new
truck by the cat trappers.
Although there is often little hope of helping cats already
trapped and on their way to Guangdong, a focus of efforts
on spay / neuter and indoor cat campaigns will hopefully
someday reduce the numbers of available strays and
unwittingly friendly pets going to market.
Shanghai Daily's coverage of the story
here.
SPAY
OR NEUTER YOUR CAT
KEEP YOUR CAT SAFELY INDOORS
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
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