1,000 cats rescued in China from being slaughtered and sold as pork, mutton

Police in China have rescued some 1,000 cats from a truck en route to a slaughterhouse, state-affiliated media has reported, busting part of an illicit trade that fraudulently sells feline meat as pork or mutton and sparking fresh food safety concerns.

Acting on a tip-off by animal activists earlier this month, officers from Zhangjiagang, in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, intercepted a vehicle used to collect and transport captured cats, according to Chinese state-affiliated news outlet The Paper.

Without the intervention, the batch was likely to be slaughtered and shipped south to be served as pork and lamb skewers as well as sausages, the report said.

Police and agricultural authorities have since sent the cats to a shelter nearby, The Paper said, after foiling a plot that could have raked in as much as $20,500.