Recently police rescued a dozen cats who were about to be served up on steaming plates of biryani. | Photo Credit: Indiatimes, Representative Image

It’s a known fact that we all love Biryani but do we really know what goes into them? There have always been rumours, jokingly spread, about how roadside eateries serve biryani that contains crow meat and the like.

However, recently police rescued a dozen cats who were about to be served up on steaming plates of biryani. Indiatimes reports that the police had undertaken this investigation after multiple residents at Balaji Nagar in Royapettah complained about their pet cats going missing.

"The day after Pongal, my cat went out. It has been un-traceable since," said M Hema, a resident told the website.

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"Most of these pets are trapped by narikuravas (gypsies) for their meat that is sold to roadside eateries. This has been happening for at least two decades now," alleged People for Animals (PFA) co-founder Shiranee Pereira.

"In the past week, police officers approached narikuravas under the pretext of being prospective cat meat buyers. However, getting information from them was not that easy said the officer as the meat is not sold to everyone and strangers asking for cat meat are usually not entertained," said a senior police officer, according to Indiatimes.

Finally, a group of gypsies were cracked down and a dozen of these cats were found in a terrible condition. Three other cats were found dead in another bag.

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