Cat meat

But in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces of the Lingnan cultural region, some—especially older—people consider cat flesh a good warming food during winter months.

[11][12][13] On January 26, 2010, China launched its first draft proposal to protect the country's animals from maltreatment, including a measure to jail people—for periods up to 15 days—for eating cat or dog meat.

[15] Expanded to more than 40 member societies, the Chinese Animal Protection Network in January 2006 began organizing well-publicized protests against dog and cat consumption, starting in Guangzhou, following up in more than ten other cities "with very optimal response from public.

[8] A 2015 Animals Asia survey found that at least more than 70-80% of Chinese respondents agreed it was not acceptable to eat dogs and cats if they had been abused or tortured during feeding and slaughter.

[19] According to HuffPost and a few Indian news outlets in 2016, cat meat was being served as mutton in parts of Chennai and being consumed mainly by the Narikuravar community in the city.

[23] In South Korea, cat meat was historically brewed into a tonic as a folk remedy for neuralgia and arthritis, not commonly as food.

The organisation reported that some Vietnamese nationals had been selling dog and cat meat in a couple of cities,[28] an allegation repeated by Coconuts Media.

[41][42] In 2018, however, officials in the city of Hanoi urged citizens to stop eating dog and cat meat, citing concerns about the cruel methods with which the animals are slaughtered and the diseases this practice propagates, including rabies and leptospirosis.

Another reason for this exhortation seems to be a concern that the practice of dog and cat consumption, most of which are stolen household pets,[43] could tarnish the city's image as a "civilised and modern capital".

[43] According to The Independent in April 2020, COVID-19 has led to increased dog and cat meat sales in Vietnam (and Cambodia) due to their perceived health benefits against the virus.

[45] Section 6, Paragraph 2 of the law for the protection of animals enacted in 2004 prohibits the killing of cats and dogs for purposes of consumption as food or for other products.

[50] In February 2010, on a television cooking show, the Italian food writer Beppe Bigazzi mentioned that during the famine in World War II, cat stew was a "succulent" and well-known dish in his home area of Valdarno, Tuscany.

According to the British Butchers' Advocate, Dressed Poultry and the Food Merchant of 1904, "Just before Christmas, it is common for a group of young men in northern Italy to kill some cats, skin them, and soak them in water for two or three days.

They are cooked with great care on Christmas day and served up hot about 1:30 p.m. after mass....Many people in Italy, 'on the quiet,' keep cats like the English do rabbits—to kill.

It is to be done on the quiet, however, for in spite of the profit in the business and the demand for the delicacy, the law has to be looked out for, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cats is vigilant.

According to the Food Safety and Veterinary Office, the sale of dog or cat meat is not allowed, but it is legal for people to eat their own animals.

Although the validity of these reports has been questioned in a book by journalists Gabriel Russo and Edgardo Miller,[61] these authors didn't produce any evidence nor taped confession of someone stating that was responsible for the forgery.

Moreover, it's been reported that the then Mayor of Rosario was the source of the rumor that the TV networks enacted a play just to discredit the city's municipal government.

[63] Contemporary reporting by the journalist Ricardo Luque of La Nación, a newspaper of record of Argentina, reproduced a quote from an inhabitant of the shanty town, "When the kids come to ask for something to eat, there's no point in giving them anything, so we go out and hunt cats, anything to fed them".

[74] This occurred approximately two years after the establishment of the Chinese Animal Protection Network (CAPN),[75] which began organizing well-publicized protests against the consumption of dog and cat meat in January 2006, initially in Guangzhou and then in more than ten other cities.