Cruel beyond belief: The moment a truck crammed with FIVE HUNDRED cats was stopped en route to restaurants in China

Some were crammed into rusty cages so small they could not stand up.

Others were gasping for air in sacks. All were starving, exhausted and just hours from being killed and served up as a delicacy in restaurants.

These harrowing photographs were taken after 500 cats were found piled on top of each other in a lorry bound for the slaughterhouse.

Disturbing: When the cats were found some had been struggling to breathe through small holes in burlap sacks

Caged animals: Many of the 500 cats were crammed together in tiny cages as they made the trip in the back of the truck across China

Many would have once been pets, stolen off the streets by ‘cat snatchers’. They are taken for slaughter in what animal welfare campaigners describe as ‘hideous conditions’, often without food or water.

These cats were saved by chance when police pulled the vehicle over for a routine check in the city of Xuzhou, eastern China, after noticing it had out-of-town licence plates.

They asked the driver what was being transported after hearing muffled whimpers from under the tarpaulin covering the cargo,

‘He said it was a full load of rabbit, but after we instructed him to uncover the load we were shocked to find a full load of living cats,’ said officer Sun Hai.

Intercepted: The felines were rescued thanks to routine vehicle checks, before they were sold as food

Helping hand: Volunteers rushed to give the cats water, before they were transferred to an animal centre for treatment The lorry driver had not broken any laws, as in China it is not illegal to eat cat meat, nor to sell the animals for slaughter, But the police contacted animal lovers in the city who negotiated for three hours with the driver, before eventually managing to buy the cats for 3,500 Yuan (£350).

Horrifying: Some of the cats had been stuffed into bags with barely enough room to breathe

The rescuers gave the cats food, water and medical attention and took them away to safety.

Eating cat meat dates back thousands of years in China, and despite a fledgling animal rights movement it continues to be considered a delicacy in some areas.

One Cantonese dish, called ‘tiger and dragon locked in battle’, is a hot pot of cat and snake meat.

The appetite for the dish has already made cats scarce and costly in the southern region of Guangdong, where restaurants have had to look elsewhere for a steady supply.

This means the animals are often transported long distances from other areas.



Animal welfare groups say many do not survive the journey and are dead before they reach their destination.

Yesterday Alan Knight, chief executive of International Animal Rescue, said: ‘There are horrendous practices in China and their animal welfare system is abysmal.

‘It is a hugely rich country and they really need to take themselves out of the dark ages and into a more humane way of treating and transporting animals.’