I'm so beside myself about this, that I'll probably be completely inarticulate, so please bear with me. I have volunteered for a number of years with a cat rescue organization in northern Virginia, so this horrible situation in Bejing touches an especially raw nerve with me.
Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.
Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.
Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.
The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.
If you can bear to read more, make the jump
Here is the full story by Simon Perry in the Daily Mail: Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijings shocking death camp for cats
It is beyond my ability to comprehend how a human being, much less a government could commit such hideous cruelty. And this is apparently in "preparation" for the Olympics.
There is a petition you can sign to protest this situation here:
Stop the Beijing Olympics Cat Massacre
There are some groups trying to stop this inside China, and some individuals, but it is very difficult for them to work alone, and it has to be an overwhelming challenge. As well, volunteers worry about punishment by the government. I have seven cats of my own, and right now, four fosters. I cannot imagine how this elderly woman manages.
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.
(emphasis mine)
I don't have a lot to add to this, except that I know that folks who hang around DailyKos are extraordinarily good at contacting their local news organizations, and if anyone is moved to do so on behalf of these unfortunate critters, I'll be forever in your debt.
This diary is dedicated to the memory of Frankie, my first-ever foster pootie. He didn't live a very long after this picture was taken, but he died in the hands of a loving foster-mom, not starving and abandoned, imprisoned and alone.
Peace
UPDATE 1: The Alley Cat Rescue Blog makes a very good point that protesting to the Intenational Olympic Committiee may be helpful too.
Here's a link to their story: Alley Cat Rescue Blog
And here is the address and phone/fax numbers - London is included, because apparently they're killing cats around the construction sites for the 2012 games:
International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
Tel: (41.21) 621 61 11
Fax: (41.21) 621 62 16
SEND LETTERS TO PARTICIPATING CITIES:
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG)
267 Bei Si Huan Zhong Lu
Haidian District
Beijing 100083, China
Tel: (86.10) 66 69 91 85
Fax: (86.10) 66 69 92 29
Email: 2008@beijing2008.cn
London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG)
23rd Floor, One Churchill Place
London E14 5LN
Tel.: +44 203 2012 000
Fax: + 44 203 2012 001
Email: info@london2012.com