Monday, June 19, 2006

Cat Meatball?



From Reuters comes this story about Chinese animal rights protesters swarming into a restaurant serving cat meat in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and forced it to shut its doors.

The 40+ demonstrators -- holding banners reading "cats and dogs are friends of human beings" -- entered the Fangji Cat Meatball restaurant and demanded the owner free any live cats on the premises. There weren't any, but the owner vowed to stop selling cat meat despite it being a Chinese tradition.

And Chinese kitties everywhere breathed a meow of relief.

22 comments:

Jessica said...

The NAME of the place is Cat Meatball???

Yikes.
At least they're up front about it...
Whenever my mom visits and our cats bug her, she tells them "Chinese food!" and they run away.

Brooke said...

Mmmm... Cat.

The other, other white meat!

(Ew.)

nanc said...

i was just coming over to tell you of this but it seems you have beaten me >^..^< ow to the punch!

cube said...

jessey: and you thought your mom was kidding about chinese food.

brooke: heh heh

nanc: love your ecaticon >^..^<

WomanHonorThyself said...

yikes hard to wrap my mind round the ideer that pple eat dogs or cats...eeewwyy.

elmers brother said...

(in his best shark impersonating accent from finding nemo)

Cats are our friends, not food.

Cats are our friends, not food.

Cats are our....

Chipper said...

One of my good friends owns a Cinese restaurant her ein Ohio and has the bumper sticker "So many cats, so few recipes" So wrong I know...but oh so funny!

cube said...

woman: I hear you. I love cats, but not in the yummy-in-my-tummy way.

elmer's bro: yeah, I remember that shark. The movie was a hoot, too.

etchen: mystery meat is a mystery no longer.

bw: good point... but I'm not superstitious about cats. It's bad luck to be superstitious ;-)

Raggedy said...

Hugssssssss

Jessica said...

I guess my two kitties are trying to thwart an imaginary plague the way they are murdering mice, rats, bunnies and baby squirrels or perhaps it was a chipmunk...
Either way, they're working in concert to eradicate pestilence in our yard. Unfortunately, they like bringing their friends into the house. These two might just end up kitty lo mein after all.

birdwoman said...

I'm no fan of cats (I know it's blasphemy here, but I think they resemble lizards with fur). (besides, as a birdwoman, I think I have an automatic waiver to not trust or like cats.)

However, I would never eat one. Or a dog. They are both work animals. It makes no sense to eat them. Esp. cats. They eat vermin.

(though, I've seen pictures of the cat-eating type butchering rats and presenting the meat such that it looks just like chicken. EEEEWWWW.)

(*)>

Brooke said...

Lizards with fur... HAHAHAHA!

I was not a cat person until recently. I had adoped two strays in the past, and one bolted out the front door never to be seen again. The other climbed a tree and jumped in our upstairs apartment window and adopted us. Seven months later he tore a hole through the window screen and escaped.

No loyalty.

However, we got a cat from the Petsmart adoption center for my daughter, after months and months of pleading. (She feeds, I scrape.)This cat is the sweetest, most patient animal I have ever seen. He tolerated my three kids obnoxious behavior with dignity and love. He mother hens the baby, and after checking on all three kids at night, invariably ends up in my hubby and my bed.

He could make a cat person out of anyone! I guess there's one for everybody!

cube said...

jessey: Louie & company. The plague fighting duo.

birdwoman: I can always count on the pro-bird, anti-cat POV from you.

brooke: they all have different personalities. I think all people are just one cat away from being cat people, but it has to be the right cat.

Jen said...

I was a strict vegetarian for almost 10 years. Then, I started eating meat again. And, weirdly, the thought of eating cats doesn't seem that bad to me.

I guess once you're killing living beings for food, it seems arbitrary and hypocritical to draw moral lines over which kind you will and won't eat. Meat is meat, even if it used to be cute. And, once you look into factory farming practices, it becomes apparent the the vast majority of meat eaters are big jerks to animals anyway. So, some folks eat cats, as long as they're not checking my children to see if they're ready for the pot I'm OK with it.

Seriously, I love the fact that it's called the Cat Meatball Restaurant.

Jen said...

Oh, before I seem like I'm on my high horse or something, I'm totally in the "I buy factory farmed meat" camp. Mmmmmm, McNuggets!

cube said...

jen: you have a point. I could have a pig for a pet & be totally against eating that particular pig, yet I love pork. This can be extrapolated for other animal as well.

Hmmm, I wonder what cat tastes like?

cube said...

bw: I've heard the cat "myths" (everything tastes like chicken), but does it really taste like chicken?

Has anyone really tasted cat meat & can they enlighten us?

Unknown said...

I'm sorry ... did you say CAT meatballs???!! Remind me to call my travel agent and cancel my next trip to Asia....

Caz said...

After days of contemplation, I'm still having a hard time ... um ... swallowing this story.

BW: yes, it would seem that every non-red meat in the entire world "Mmm, tastes a bit like chicken".

Anonymous said...

Cat doesn't taste bad at all. I had the opportunity to try it in Beijing when I lived there, and it's quite good. No, it doesn't taste like chicken.

Unknown said...

Why are people so shocked about what other countries find as a food product. I was in Korea when I witnessed a Korean man with kids skinning a dog over an open spit. Yes, initally I was shocked, then I learned that he was just trying to feed his kids (survival). Since then I try not to judge people. When people challenge others beliefs or religions, etc., one must be very careful not to offend. America is not beneath atrocious acts. Let people be, they've been eating what appears to be appalling to us for centuries! It may be why America is despised amongst alot of other nations, we always want to force our way of life upon others! Who's to say we're right! Get over it! Just don't eat your cat. People eat rattlesnakes, where's your outrage with that! None! Because they're despised! But yet they're a living entity like us!

Anonymous said...

lenny: dude, you sound like you've been eating a lot of s**t 'cause a bunch of it just dribbled out of your mouth.

you try not to judge people, yet you accuse Americans of being intolerant and offensive?

i guess having a steady diet of s**t leads to s**t-for-brains.

lee