Polluting factories in and around the
city are being ordered to shut down or
relocate during the Games to ease
Beijing's choking smog and drivers are
allowed out on to the roads only three
times a week.
Fares on the city's underground
network have been cut to just two yuan
(14p) for any journey - a six-fold
reduction on some routes - to keep
people off buses, and beggars and street
sleepers are being moved to out-of-town
camps or given train fares back to their
home provinces.
Meanwhile, taxi drivers have been
made to attend lessons in how to greet
passengers politely in English and a
city-wide courtesy campaign has been
launched to teach Beijing's notoriously
dour and grumpy citizens how to smile
and be pleasant to foreigners.
The cull of Beijing's estimated
500,000 cat population is certain to
provoke international outrage as it
comes just over a year after the Chinese
were criticized for rounding up and
killing stray dogs across the country.
Animal welfare groups in China are
already protesting, but their members
fear punishment from the authorities.
Officials say people can adopt
animals from the 12 cat pounds set up
around the city, but welfare groups say
they are almost impossible to get inside
and believe few cats survive.
One cat lovers' group negotiated the
release of 30 pets from one of the
compounds in Shahe, north-west Beijing,
but said they were in such a pitiful
condition that half of them died within
days of their release.
"These cats are being left to die. It
is very inhumane," said the group's
founder Yan Qi, who runs a sanctuary for
cats.
"People don't want to keep cats in
Beijing any more so they abandon them or
send them to the compounds.
"When we went inside, we saw about 70
cats being kept in cages stacked one on
top of the other in two tiny rooms.
"Disease spreads quickly among them
and they die slowly in agony and
distress. The government won't even do
the cats the kindness of giving them
lethal injections when they become sick.
They just wait for them to die.
"It is the abandoned pets that suffer
the most and die the soonest. They
relied so much on their owners that they
can't cope with the new environment.
"Most refuse to eat or drink and get
sick more quickly than the feral cats."
Ms Yan's group has now been denied
access to the pounds. "We do not believe
any of the cats that go in there
survive," she said. "They are like death
camps."
Ms Yan said there was another reason
for people abandoning their cats - the
200 yuan (£14) fee they face if they
want to have their pets neutered and
tagged.
"We have tried to negotiate with the
government to stop the round-ups and to
introduce cut-price neutering services
so that people can afford to keep their
pets but they won't listen to us," she
said.
"They are not thinking about the
cats. They just want to get results in
the quickest way possible, by clearing
as many cats from the city as they can."
Retired doctor Hu Yuan, 80, runs one
of the few remaining refuges for
abandoned pets in her ramshackle home in
the ancient Long Tou Jing area of
Beijing.
She shares her tiny home with 250
abandoned cats and has taken in 70 over
the past 12 months alone.
She pays for neutering and food from
her pension and donations. She said: "If
I don't take them in, the government
will kill them.
"People believe what the government
tells them and that is why they are
abandoning more and more family pets."
She said the problem could be traced
back to former president Jiang Zemin for
the crackdown.
"He didn't like dogs so he decided to
have dogs killed. But there was a bad
reaction from the foreign media and they
were pressured to stop.
"Now they have stopped killing dogs
but the new victims are cats. It is all
connected to the Olympics."
Cats are regularly dumped on her
doorstep late at night by owners
frightened by the government campaign.
"The situation is very bad now," said
Ms Hu. "When women get pregnant, the
doctor will ask them if they have a cat
in the house.
"If they reply Yes, they tell them,
'You must get rid of it, it will be bad
for the baby'.
"I keep all the cats in my house and
100 of them sleep in my bedroom at
night. I am too frightened to let them
out. If they go outside, they will be
taken away and killed.
"The government is not telling people
the truth. Look at me. I live with them
24 hours a day, seven days a week and I
am very healthy."
The round-up has been particularly
intense in areas around Olympic venues
and in streets and alleys surrounding
five-star hotels where guests will stay
during the summer games.
Despite the health warnings, the
round-up of cats has led to a surge in
the number of restaurants in the capital
serving cat meat, according to Ms Hu.
She said hundreds of cats were also
being sent to Guangzhou in southern
China, an area infamous for restaurants
that serve meat from cats and dogs and
exotic animals such as snakes and
tigers.
It was in July last year that
district officials were instructed to
begin an intense round-up of cats as
part of Beijing's pre-Olympics clean-up.
Now notices have been put up urging
residents to hand in cats.
Welfare groups estimate that tens of
thousands have been collected in the
past few months.
The Mail on Sunday went to the cat
pound in Shahe on the north-western
fringes of Beijing but we were
repeatedly refused admission.
"No one can come in without official
papers," staff shouted from behind
padlocked steel gates.
At another, larger compound in Da Niu
Fang village, the sound of cats wailing
could be clearly heard coming from a
cluster of tin-roofed sheds, but workers
denied they were holding any cats.
"There are no cats here, go away. No
one is allowed inside unless you have
official permission," a security guard
said.
The killing of the six stray cats at
the kindergarten - where staff at a
Beijing cigarette factory leave their
children - is the most striking
illustration of the city-wide fear of
cats.
A teacher at the nursery said: "We
did it out of love for the children. We
were worried the cats might harm them.
These six cats had been hanging around
the kindergarten looking for food.
"So three male teachers put out
plates of tuna in cages for bait,
trapped the cats and then beat them to
death with sticks.
"We were very worried the children
might try to stroke them and that the
cats might scratch them or pass on
diseases. We had to get rid of the cats
and this was the only way to do it."
Christie Yang of the charity Animals
Asia, which liaises with the Beijing
animal welfare groups, said: "We are
seriously concerned.
"We understand that with the Olympic
Games the Beijing government is eager to
show the world the city in a good light.
"But capturing and dealing with cats
in such an inhumane way will seriously
tarnish the image of Beijing and the
Games."
• Names of the animal campaigners
have been changed as the people we
interviewed are concerned about
officials' reaction to our story.
Do
People Eat Dogs
Too?
Answer:
Yes, they do.
From The
Publisher:
On a personal
note: When I was
overseas in the
Navy, one meal I ate
while in the
Philippians was
later disclosed to
me that it was
actually dog meat in
the meal I had
eaten. I was
surprised because it
was delicious and I
remember thinking
that it was really
good Chicken. It was
a noodle dish much
like Lo Mein. In
America it is taboo
to eat cats and dogs
and I am very much
acclimated to this
way of life, but in
many Countries it is
the norm and not
given a second
thought. In this age
of processed foods,
mega slaughter
houses and factory
farms, most people
today go down to the
market and purchase
their food products
which are all neatly
packaged, wrapped
and boxed up ready
to consume. It is a
fact that our fore
fathers and
ancestors all the
way back ate more
grains and
vegetables than meat
and only in the last
50 years or so have
we turned into
carnivores on a
massive scale. I
think the bottom
line for me is this:
If more people had
to kill for their
meat, there would be
far more vegetarians
in the world. B.A.
Brooks
pounds as China mounts an
aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic
Games.