Changsha Cat Rescue
On the early morning of January the 14th 2013, just after midnight, there was an emergency in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province. A large truck with over 40 cages, full of some 1000 cats, was heading to Guangdong to sell the cats to restaurants for slaughter. While it was travelling through Changsha, the truck was in a traffic accident and was stuck at an intersection. The driver was taken to hospital, and the captured cats were left in the truck. The driver refused to answer reporters’ questions. All of these cats were severely mistreated and starving, having not had any food or water for many days.
Many thanks to a police officer Mr. Wang Yujing and others who called for help through Weibo for local Changsha people to come and rescue the poor cats. [Weibo is a social network].
With the driver of the truck in hospital, the organizer of this bloody business arrived at the scene, along with policemen and local volunteers. After much negotiation, the volunteers collectively donated the equivalent of 1,600 USD to the cat napper. Finally, at 2 am, the suffering cats were released to the volunteers. Some cats were taken home with the volunteers, while most will go to a rescue shelter and vets to be treated.
Much appreciation goes to the loving volunteers who have given up their time in such freezing cold temperatures to save these beautiful, suffering cats. Many thanks as well to the power of Weibo, the rescue of these cats would have been much harder without the fast and efficient transmitting of messages through Weibo.
This is a terrible situation for loving volunteers to be in. While we don’t want to give a cent to these cruel people, there was no other way for them to save the poor cats. If the police were to insist on having the cats released to the volunteers, we would not have to pay anything to the horrible cat napper. The capture of cats is criminal, but this doesn’t stop greedy kidnappers from stealing and hurting cats. Current food and safety laws do not allow food that has not been quarantined to be eaten, but that is not enough.
We are calling for stricter animal protection laws to be introduced, to protect those who cannot speak.
The rescued cats are now under care of Changsha Small Animal Protection Association, we wish them love from us all.
Briefly translated by Joy Gao.
Edited by Marian.