When Dabai, Han Jiali’s beloved cat, disappeared in Shanghai last year, the young woman searched and searched…until she uncovered a secret cat meat trafficking network.
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In the Asian country, the majority of residents do not eat cat.
However, this does not prevent the fact that, according to an estimate by the American animal protection organization Humane Society International, around four million cats are killed every year in order to end up on the table.
According to the NGO, this illegal market exists mainly in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in southern China.
For Han Jiali, the search for his cat became a real crusade that cost him time and thousands of dollars.
She discovered an entire supply chain that purchases both street cats and outdoor domestic cats in the Shanghai region.
When she saw cat carcasses slaughtered outside factories and then village restaurants featuring the animal on the menu, she had to face the facts.
“I had to admit that my cat was gone forever,” she says with emotion. “It had been eaten.”
Now she wants to prevent other cats from suffering the same fate. Over the past year, she has filed police reports, tracked down cat thieves and sent petitions to authorities in Guangdong province.
Death threats
The mission is not without danger: Han Jiali says he has received death threats from certain human traffickers. And in December, a man intentionally crashed his car into a highway rest area.
“I was scared and thought about giving up,” she says.
“But if I remain silent, who will save (the cats) from this miserable situation?”
At 33, Han Jiali is part of an admittedly small but determined group of Chinese people fighting against the mistreatment of dogs and cats because there is no protective institutional framework for these animals.
Because in China, catching a pet running around outside is not considered theft.
Even though the law prohibits the consumption of cats, those who violate it are punished for food safety, not animal cruelty.
Activists and even some state media commentators are increasingly calling for laws to protect pets from mistreatment.
But they feel helpless.
“I am an ordinary person, my abilities are limited,” Han Jiali admits.
But sometimes there are small victories: Last month, with the help of other activists and local police, she led to the seizure of a truck carrying hundreds of cats outside Zhangjiagang, near Shanghai.
“They recovered cats (captured) from a cemetery,” she told AFP.
“From observing them, we quickly realized that they wanted to sell the captured cats illegally.”
AFP
An island
The activists spent the entire night standing guard outside the cemetery. In the morning, a truck arrived carrying dozens of tiny bamboo boxes containing around 800 cats. Here police and activists intervened.
The animals are now safe in the city of Taicang, an hour from Shanghai, at a shelter run by Gu Ming, 45, who previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and his wife.
AFP
Many of these rescued cats had crushed bones that had been crushed by the weight of other animals when transported by truck, Gu Ming said.
Several dozen of them succumbed to their injuries or viral infections that quickly spread among the huddled animals.
Veterinarians came to vaccinate and sterilize the healthier cats.
After weeks of treatment and isolation, some of them now live a peaceful life in a large outdoor enclosure with trees and baskets covered with blankets.
AFP
Gu Ming covers the costs of the animal shelter from his own savings.
His project? Take all the cats to a small island next to a local temple. A few dozen previously rescued cats already live where tiny huts have been built.
But he wants things to change in his country. “We need to push for national legislation (to protect pets, editor’s note) because we can’t just rely on individuals or a few groups.”