Pet lovers save 800 cats from dinner table

More than 800 cats, locked up in rows of iron cages in a store in Tianjin municipality, would have been transported to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and slaughtered had it not been for about 30 residents who rallied for nearly 24 hours, negotiating with the trader and police, to free the animals yesterday.

Pet lovers and animal welfare volunteers started pouring into a neighborhood in Hongqiao district of the municipality, 120 km from Beijing, minutes after photographs of the caged cats were flashed on the Internet on Monday night.

The trader said the cats, which he bought for 10 yuan apiece, were to be sent to Guangzhou, slaughtered and served as food at restaurants in South China.