Google – AFP, 22 November 2013
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This file
photo shows a man playing with his dog, in Beijing, on July 19, 2013
(AFP/File,
Wang Zhao)
|
Beijing —
Animal rights campaigners have launched a poster campaign urging Chinese diners
to turn down cat and dog dishes, with the group calling for the creatures to be
considered "friends not food".
The 279
adverts were put up in 14 cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou,
Hong Kong-based campaign group Animals Asia said.
Cat and dog
meat are not widely eaten in China but can be found at some restaurants,
particularly in the south, where they are sometimes considered specialities.
But as the
country has grown wealthier pet ownership has increased, and more than 30
million households now keep a cat or dog, according to research group
Euromonitor.
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This file
photo shows a Chinese chef
showing cooked dog paws at his
restaurant in Tokyo,
on January 25,
2006 (AFP/File, Toru Yamanaka)
|
Animals
Asia appeared to be trying to tap into that growing demographic of pet owners.
One poster
showed a small girl sitting with two dogs while a human hand aimed a pair of
chopsticks at one of the animals.
"What
you just put into your mouth could have been a child's partner in growth,"
the advertisement read.
"Be
healthy. Say no to cat and dog meat."
On its website
Animals Asia said the posters, announced earlier this month, aimed to inform
the public of health risks from eating cat and dog, and were intended "to
prompt people to re-evaluate why they?d eat animals they might otherwise
consider friends not food".
China does
not have any laws to protect non-endangered animals.
The animal
rights movement in the country remains small but it is growing, with volunteers
banding together to mount rescues of dogs and cats from trucks transporting
them to restaurants where they are served as meat.
Around 600
cats stuffed into wooden crates and on their way to such a fate were rescued
after a truck crash in January.
A convoy of
trucks carrying about 500 dogs to be sold as meat was stopped by volunteers on
a highway in Beijing in 2011 and the animals retrieved.
Irene Feng,
dog and cat welfare director for Animals Asia, highlighted the uncertainty that
accompanies eating such meat.
"The
truth is, if you eat dog or cat then you have no idea where that meat is coming
from or how safe it is," she said on the website.
Numerous
abandoned cats and dogs are taken from the streets while pets are stolen and
taken to "horrific meat markets", Feng added.
"We
believe that, faced with this knowledge, most people would find such a meal
entirely unappetising."
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