Chinese Cat Market

(Guangzhou, China) For adventures in gastronomy, southern China should be included on tourists' itinerary with a caution to leave your pets at home. Cooked cat is a staple among the citizenry with about 10,000 consumed every day throughout Guangdong.

An old expression here in the province of Guangdong holds that any animal "whose back faces the heavens" is fair game for eating

Elsewhere, people jokingly say the people of Guangdong will eat, "anything on four legs except a table."

One evening last week, however, a waitress at Jia Hua explained that cat wasn't on the menu, and wouldn't be for months.

"We don't serve it in summer time," she explained. "It's really a winter dish."

The neighbourhood knows: in winter months the restaurant displays its live cats in cages on the street, in full view of passersby.

Prices for restaurant-prepared cat range from $1.30 for a bowl of "Old Cat Soup" to more than $24 for "Braised Cat." Wholesalers called "cat fishermen" sell live pussies for about $1.40 each. At the market, home cooks can buy top quality cat meat for about $1.25 per pound.

In opposition to cat consumption by humans, animal rights advocates occasionally raid cat dealers and suppliers and liberate the felines. Other cat lovers are attempting to educate the public about cute kitties while blaming oldsters born before 1980 for eating them. The younger generation is expressing a preference to have cats walking on the dinner table as opposed to languishing roasted in a sweet and sour sauce.