For the first time, China has excluded cats and dogs, the meat of which is consumed by a minority, from an official list of edible animals, Beijing announced on Wednesday
The list, published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, lists a list of animals that can be raised for meat, fur or for medical purposes. Dogs and cats are not among them.
Ten million dogs killed each year in China
The consumption of their meat is not illegal in China, but it remains extremely minority and arouses growing opposition from the population. "It is the first time that the Chinese government stipulates that cats and dogs are pets and not intended for consumption," said Thursday in a statement the American association Humane Society International (HSI).
The latter estimates that 10 million dogs are killed each year in China for their meat.
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Thousands of canids are notably slaughtered during the dog meat festival of Yulin (south), in conditions deemed cruel by animal defenders, the quadrupeds being beaten to death or even scalded alive.
This decision comes after the ban in February on the trade and consumption of wild animals, a practice suspected in the spread of the new coronavirus. The wildlife trade was also banned during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis in 2002-2003, a coronavirus whose transmission had also been linked to the consumption of wildlife. But this trade had quickly resumed.
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