Passenger smells rat, 25 cats rescued

Dawn Williams of Blue Cross said that one of the passengers saw the woman with gunny bags at Villivakkam station and suspected her of carrying cats in them. 

He immediately alerted Blue Cross and a volunteer intercepted the woman at Ambattur station. On a subsequent check of the bags, around 26 cats were found. But, one had died by then.

On enquiry, the woman said that she was only transporting the animals and some of them were to be sold to eateries. The rescued cats were transferred to cages and brought to the shelter for treatment, Dawn added. 

“We recently lodged a police complaint against some residents of an apartment in Tondiarpet. They hired a few people to get rid of the cats. Following this, a case under sections 429 IPC r/w 511 IPC, and 329 IPC was registered.” 

“Further investigation revealed that these cats were being killed and sold to eateries in many cases,” said Dawn. 

Some activists say the cat meat was being used for personal consumption of the members of a particular community. One can find these animals caged in their settlement and cooked during special occasions. However, a few others differ and say community members catch cats only to sell them to eateries. 

“We rescued around 40 cats in 2015-16. According to our research, cat meat is also sold as chicken to roadside eateries. These roadside eateries pay less than Rs 50 for a bag of cat meat which is much lesser than others,” says an activist from People For Cattle in India.

According to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, it is illegal to slaughter any other animal other than those belonging to the species of bovines, caprines, ovines and suillines, which include poultry and fish. 

“Cat can carry some serious diseases, including fleas that are extremely toxic. Consuming cat meat may not be a good idea. If not cooked properly, it could be harmful for people,” says vet at SPCA Dr Chockalingam.