The SARS Scare in China: Slaughter of the Animals

[pandybat]

This is sick and scary! All those poor animals. I wish they could have come up with a better way to get rid of them besides drowning them.
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The SARS Scare in China: Slaughter of the Animals
By JIM YARDLEY

Published: January 7, 2004


UANGZHOU, China, Jan. 6 — The Xinyuan market reeks of animal waste and death. Trucks arrive daily with animals jammed into cages — cats, dogs, pigeons, boars, ostriches, even rats. The people who work in the market live in cages, too. They sleep above their shops, in tiny lofts with bars for walls.

When they awoke on Tuesday they ran squarely into the local government's new war against SARS. Animal control officers in masks and smocks confiscated 148 animals, including civet cats, which some scientists believe are SARS carriers. The animals, relatives of the mongoose that would have ended up as a stew on local menus, earned no reprieve.

"All of them will be killed today," said Lian Junhang, a local forestry bureau official overseeing the roundup at Xinyuan.

The resolve of officials here in Guangdong Province to slaughter an estimated 10,000 civets and other animals as a preventive measure against SARS was on vivid display Tuesday. Even as international health officials urged caution, Chinese news media reported that local health workers in protective suits and goggles were plunging caged civets into pools of water and drowning them.

<read the rest at the link above>

[pandybat]

Just for the heck of it, I looked up a civet cat, a raccoon dog and a hog badger. Very interesting! I have never seen nor ever heard of these animals before.

Civet Cat

The civet cat is not a cat, although it looks like one.
From the family Viverridae, it is a nocturnal animal related to the mongoose. Cool looking thing, huh? These are considered a delicacy in China.

Raccoon Dog

Looks like a raccoon but is actually a dog. Lives in heavily wooded areas close to water and are nocturnal. Not sure if these are eaten or used as pets in China.
I LOVE THIS ANIMAL! I WANT ONE! Is that cool or what?!?

Hog Badger

Is a badger with pig-like features. Hog badgers are said to be playful animals, the young especially so. Nocturnal. Wild...but cool. Not sure if these are eaten or used as pets in China.

[luvbukit]

On a similar note, anyone remember learning about The Plague? They thought the dogs and cats were carrying it and slaughtered a bunch of them. Come to find out it was the rats, and they had killed off all their natural predators...

Why in the world are people eating cats and dogs anyway? When did eating beef or even vegetables become a bad thing?

Just my .02...

Kim

[pandybat]

That's kinda how it's happening with these animals, Kim. They aren't 100% sure that its these animals causing the SARS but they are killing them anyway. Sad.