CHENNAI: Police and volunteers of People for Animals ( PfA ) rescued 16 cats from a narikorava settlement in Pallavaram here on Friday. The cats were kept for their meat.PfA volunteer Sagar Sheth, who was part of the operation, said they received information that pet cats were trapped by the narikorvas, who on weekends skinned them and sold the meat to roadside eateries in and around Pallavaram. The meat was used in biryani.Two PfA volunteers visited the settlement on Thursday. They befriended a couple of narikorava youths and asked them to demonstrate how the cats are trapped and then skinned. The demonstration was recorded by the volunteers. Later, the footage was shown to the Pallavaram police, who agreed to rescue the cats from the narikoravas.On Friday morning, the police and PfA volunteers went to the narikorava settlement. All the 16 cats were kept in a single cage, and they were not provided water to drink.Pallavaram police inspector G Venkatesan said they had received complaints about pet cats being stolen from various residential areas and kept in narikorava settlement. “When the PfA volunteers approached us for help, our team went and rescued the cats,” he said.The rescued cats were sent to in the PfA shelter in Red Hills. PfA co-founder Shiranee Pereira said the rescued cats were visibly shocked and dehydrated. They were not fed regularly. This was evident from their aggressive behaviour. “It will take at least a month for the cats to recover from the shock and behave normally,” she said.