Trapped with live bait and crammed into cages: Nearly 150 cats intended for human consumption have been rescued by police in eastern China, animal rights organization Humane Society International (HSI) said. .
The felines were confined in rusty cages when they were discovered by police in Jinan city, Shandong province, the US-based association said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sparrows were placed in cages as bait and a remote control was used to close the traps as soon as a cat entered, said an activist from VShine, a local animal rights group.
“It was shocking to see the state they were in.
Many of them were emaciated,” said Mr. Huang, another activist, quoted in the HSI statement.
"Our discovery of dozens of live sparrows being used as bait to attract cats was also a big shock."
Most of the rescued felines are thought to be pets and were sent to shelters after their rescue, the statement said.
Activists also found 31 sparrows - a protected species in the country - and released them into the wild.
Millions of dogs and cats eaten every year
China has no specific law to punish animal cruelty.
But the suspects could be prosecuted for hunting birds, stealing cats or for breaking animal disease prevention rules.
According to HSI, about 10 million dogs and four million cats are killed for human consumption each year in the country.
Every year in June, the city of Yulin, in the province of Guangxi (south), organizes a dog meat festival on the occasion of the summer solstice.
Cats are also sold there to be eaten.
However, these meats remain very little consumed in China.
They are mainly in certain areas of the southern provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
Consumption is in steady decline with the increase in the number of pets.
China banned the consumption and trade of wild animals in 2020. The cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai (south) in Guangdong have banned the consumption of dogs and cats since April.
They became the first in China to take such a step.
