Results tagged “animalrights”

PSA: Beware the cat snatchers

Yesterday night, after enjoying a drink at one of our favorite pubs, we were strolling home along Fuxing Lu in the Luwan district. At one o' clock the streets were empty except for the odd beggar or δΈ²-seller. It was then we noticed a middle aged man in a white shirt who seemed to be fiddling with something like a cage. As we came closer we saw that it was indeed a cage, about 30cm high and around 50cm long. Inside the cage, two small, live sparrows (or some similar kind of bird) were hung upside down from the wire ceiling.

About 800 cats escaped the Guangdong dinner tables this weekend, as activists from Shanghai Animal Protection Association freed them from "cat dealers" in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. The animals had been locked in small bamboo cages, stacked in a truck, and were to be transported to Guangdong. According to an activist quoted in the Shanghai Daily, about 1500 cats were on the truck, but activists only managed to release around 800 of them.

What would be your response if we were to pose the question, "what is better than a black bear and a white Siberian tiger sporting traditional sevillanas dresses, adorned with flowers and dancing a Spanish Flamenco under the bright lights of a ballroom platform, televised for all of the world to see?" Well, if you're like us, then kangaroo boxing and monkey-ostrich pair jousting may come to mind. But, now, it seems that some international group of party-poopers* known as "animal rights advocates" have deprived Shanghailanders of the one sure-fire joy of living in China: the Shanghai Animal Olympics has been canceled.

Shanghaiist reader luckytaikonaut (probably not his or her real name), aware of our affinity for furry friends, sent in this report about a group of protesters, reportedly including Miss Shenzhen 2005, who effectively forced the city's Fangji Cat Meatball restaurant to shut down:

Not that we were begging for yet another past-their-prime pop star to sing for us, but former Wings frontman Paul McCartney has made it very clear: He will not be playing any gigs in Shanghai -- or anywhere else in China -- any time soon. Why? Because people abuse animals in China, and government officials don't seem to care.

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