Not every kitten in this story survives, so just go ahead and click away now if you don’t want to read about it.
Amid tragedy, however, we also have a tale of human compassion in the form of a spontaneous, group effort to rescue all that could be rescued.
Yesterday, a truck carrying more than 40 crates of kittens (we’re talking hundreds), possibly on its way to Guangzhou, got into an accident at the intersection of Panpan Road and Changxing Road in Changsha, Hunan province.
The cats remained trapped in their boxes. According to China News, it began to drizzle that night, and some of the animals, who had been without food for more than a day, died. At least two newborns also perished.
But this horrific scene — imagine the yawping; if you’ve ever seen a cat in pain, you know exactly — set the stage for a heartening display of charity. Local residents who heard the news began arriving in the middle of the night with food and mineral water. Then, after repeated requests and negotiations, residents pooled together thousands of yuan to buy the shipment — all of the cats.
The lucky felines were taken to a local animal shelter, where they’re being temporarily looked after.
UPDATE, 1/16, 2:19 am: Just saw that the website Care for Chinese Animals reported on this as well. In a translated message possibly written by someone who was at the scene:
The driver refused to answer reporters’ questions. All of these cats were severely mistreated and starved, having not had any food or water for many days. Many thanks to a police officer Mr. Wang Yujing and among the others were calling for help through Weibo for local Changsha people to come and rescue the poor cats.
…This is a terrible situation for loving volunteers to be in. While we don’t want to give a cent to the cruel evil, there was no other way for them to save the poor cats. If the police were to insist on having the cats released to the volunteers, we would not have to pay anything to the horrible cat napper. The capture of cats is criminal, but this doesn’t stop greedy and selfish kidnappers from stealing and hurting cats. Current food and safety laws do not allow food that has not been quarantined to be eaten, but that is not enough. We are calling for stricter animal protection laws to be introduced, to protect those who cannot speak.
Bravo to the citizens of Changsha who braved the elements in the middle of the night and who then pooled their money and negotiated to buy all the kittens and cats. The horror of the story is that is resembles another incident a short while ago regarding a shipment of dogs who ended being rescued by similarly concerned citizens.
When will the central government put an end to this barbaric act of permitting the serving of cats and dogs in restaurants?
when does the central government put an end to the barbaric custom of eating suckling pigs, chicken…
When a truck full of pigs rolled over in Toronto we just euthanized all of them because they now became void in terms of warranty that these animals were safe to eat. I can tell you, nobody that day adopted a big. I suppose that makes us Canucks barbarians.
Also did i miss something? I don’t recall these animals being sold for food. For all we know they were heading to a store and now the store is uninterested now that they are damaged property. That’s how animal commerce works.
Yes SeaHorse, you are absolutely correct. The 40 crates of kittens were obviously not heading to a Guangzhou wet market but were instead being transported to Mr. Wu’s Kitty Home, where they would living the life of Riley at Mr Wu’s own expense. There the kitties would feast on Norwegian salmon caught from the deepest, cleanest fjords and organic, full cream milk from moo cows that have wandered in New Zealand’s most pristine meadows and imported at great expense by Mr Wu, (an avid cat lover and not the tastes delicious kind of love).
If the kittens weren’t travelling in a truck designed by laowai then they would have been perfectly safe. Thankfully China has many patriots like Mr. Wu, and his five mistresses. Anyone who insinuates otherwise is obviously a member of an anti-China clique, has hurt the feelings of all Chinese people and must apologise immediately.
Ps. Any donations to Mr. Wu’s Kitten Home will be happily pocketed, I mean collected by the Chinese Red Cross.