The Chinese government is hard at work killing cats in order to prepare for the Olympics, which are to be held in China later this year.

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.

Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.

Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females – were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.

[…]

One cat lovers’ group negotiated the release of 30 pets from one of the compounds in Shahe, north-west Beijing, but said they were in such a pitiful condition that half of them died within days of their release.”These cats are being left to die. It is very inhumane,” said the group’s founder Yan Qi, who runs a sanctuary for cats.

“People don’t want to keep cats in Beijing any more so they abandon them or send them to the compounds.

“When we went inside, we saw about 70 cats being kept in cages stacked one on top of the other in two tiny rooms.

“Disease spreads quickly among them and they die slowly in agony and distress. The government won’t even do the cats the kindness of giving them lethal injections when they become sick. They just wait for them to die.

Here’s the rest.

Areas of Beijing where tourists will be spending time are getting a bit of a makeover too. Officials are getting the homeless and drunks off the street, teaching taxi drivers and others how to smile and be nice, and ordering dirty businesses to shut down or relocate during the games. I dunno, but the saying “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” comes to mind. Dressing up China isn’t going to change the fact that it’s still China…and they’ve shown time and time again that they don’t give a damn about pets, or their people

Honestly, this doesn’t surprise me though. After all, this is the same country that beat dogs to death not so long ago. And, oh yea…they also sold bogus food ingredients that killed thousands of pets last year in that recall we all remember all too well.

Making it to the Olympics is a life-long goal for many athletes but I suspect with all the garbage that’s been in the news about China (cat killing, dog killing, tainted food and other products), it’s putting many of them in a bind. Do they stay home because of it all or do they go to the Olympics and pretend China is something it’s not? I know it’s got to be a tough decision, and may be the choice between achieving a life-long dream or standing up for what they believe is right.

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