Chinese Want to Become “Civilized”

In "Animal rights protest shuts restaurant" (Reuters, 07/19/06), we discover that the Chinese eat cats and dogs.

No, wait, we already knew that.

Okay, here’s what we discover: there was a protest outside a restaurant–the Fangji Cat Meatball restaurant (you just can’t make this stuff up)–that sells, you guessed it, cat meat.

Cats are some of my favorite beings (see Emily Fokker, my present kitty, below), so before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, I’m not advocating eating cats.

The article goes on to say: "A local beauty queen, Miss Shenzhen 2005, also took part [in the protest], calling on people to ‘stop eating cats and dogs and become civilized.’"

According to dictionary.com, which isn’t the greatest but sure is speedy, civilized is defined: To raise from barbarism to an enlightened stage of development; bring out of a primitive or savage state.

Can you say Tibet?

Read Amnesty International’s 2005 Report on China for an update on how the civilizing of China is progressing.

I love that Mis Shenzhen 2005 cares about the cats. But how does eating cows and monkeys and snakes equal "civilized?" The cats aren’t even factory farmed, so at least they had lives before their untimely and no-doubt gruesome slaughter.

I look forward to the day there’s a protest outside the Fangji Cow Meatball restaurant.