Last Friday, over 800 cats were rescued in Shanghai's Xinzhuang area, where they were about to be shipped to Guangzhou to meet their maker. However, local cat lovers here in Shanghai informed the police, resulting in a stand-off between the cat-lovers and the cat meat shippers that lasted several hours. The cat meat shippers claimed that the cats were from a legit cat farm in Anhui province, and had documents to prove it; the cat-lovers claim these were forged. The Chinese reports mention that some of the cats were quite dirty while others had collars, which in their eyes proved that the cats were captured. In the end, word of the situation spread through the internet and the stand-off, which started around 10pm and lasted until the wee hours of the night, was resolved with the cat-lovers collecting around 10,000 RMB and buying the freedom of the cats. Read the Chinese reports and take a look at some pictures here and here.
Photo from eastday.com



Those people are sick!!! They should be killed instead of the cats.
Eh, it's all subjective. Personally, I find rats adorable. Most people kill rats. Many, many of them. It's no more inherently wrong to kill one animal than another, and given the way life works (beef, pork, anybody?), they can do whatever they want.
Oh thanks, guest#2, let's have THAT discussion again.
Come on, guest #3, the story was flame-bait from the moment it was put up, and guest #1 took the bait just as much as guest #2. "they should be killed instead of the cats" indeed. I hope shanghaiist covers spitting in the next update, or maybe Bai Ling again.
Bob Chippens here, animal justiceman. More bias crap on animals, even more sickening than the contents of the story itself.
Talking of rats, I had a friend at uni (vet student) who loved rats and hated cats. I'm sure she'd be cheering on the cat trade.