Animal welfare activists in Beijing are up in arms
over a decision by the city government to clear the
capital of its stray cats as part of a sweeping
Olympic facelift.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article3427996.ece

From The Times
February 25, 2008

Cats are out as Beijing starts to preen itself
Jane Macartney in Beijing

Animal welfare activists in Beijing are up in arms
over a decision by the city government to clear the
capital of its stray cats as part of a sweeping
Olympic facelift.

No one knows exactly how many homeless cats roam the
city�fs streets and alleys but the Capital Animal
Welfare Assocation says 160,000 to 200,000 animals at
the very minimum are at risk from the new campaign.

Strays are already being caught and transported to a
holding pen in the suburban county of Changping.
Animal welfare activists described seeing the cats
crowded together in cages the size of a microwave
oven. They estimated almost 90 per cent of the animals
were clearly diseased and many had been neutered with
rudimentary surgery that had led to infections. The
order states that strays still unclaimed after 14 days
will be �gdealt with�h.

Qin Xiaona, head of the animal welfare association,
told The Times: �gThis is nothing less than torture.
And the situation is much worse than this for dogs.�h

The drive was announced by the city�fs agricultural
bureau director at a recent meeting of the municipal
parliament. He ordered that all stray cats must be
caught and taken off the streets before the end of
June to ensure the city looks its best for the
two-week-long Olympic games starting on August 8.

Mrs Qin said: �gThe officials said they did not want
the Olympic athletes to see a single stray animal.
This is partly because the Chinese care so much about
face.�h

Orders have already been sent out to the neighbourhood
committees that are responsible for maintaining order
and implementing government directives throughout the
18 districts of Beijing. Mrs Qin described seeing
committee officials holding meetings in the Eastern
District in the city centre and calling on residents
to round up stray cats.

She said: �gCats are beneficial to the community in a
city like Beijing because they catch rats. If people
catch all the stray cats then can you imagine how
terrible the problem of rats could become?�h This
newest campaign to empty the city streets of roaming
animals does not include stray dogs since these have
been banned in Beijing for many years and are
regularly cleared out by the police.

The animal welfare activists said it would be
extremely difficult to rid Beijing of the cats that
live wild in the many nooks and crannies of the
ancient alleys that criss-cross the old centre of the
capital. But this is not the first time that the
capital has declared war on an animal.

In the 1950s, Mao Zedong launched the �gFour Pests�h
campaign when citizens were ordered to kill flies,
mosquitoes, rats and sparrows. The mass slaughter of
sparrows had unintended consequences, resulting in an
explosion of the locust population.

Mrs Qin said her group had offered to work with the
government in case of any campaign to ensure the
city�fs cats were handled in a humane manner, but
their proposals had been ignored.

�gI have a question for the International Olympic
Committee and the athletes: Do they feel that they can
take part comfortably in the Olympics if the price of
the games is the lives of so many animals?�h

She also had fighting words for the organisers. �gWe
Beijing residents are ready to go without electricity,
without water, without cars if the Games can be a
success. But we are opposed to an Olympics that will
cost the lives of animals. We feel this is tragic.�h

Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.