Howling in terror

REVEALED: SHOCKING SLAUGHTER OF CATS FOR THEIR MEAT

- NADA FARHOUD

CAGED cats wail in terror as they watch a man swoop in with a set of barbaric-looking pincers and yank one out by the scruff of its neck.

After repeatedly bludgeoning the animal, he plunges it into boiling hot water then throws it into a defurring machine.

Every year, a million cats are slaughtered in this manner, before being cooked and served up in restaurants part of a cruel and dangerous meat trade in Vietnam.

Many are beloved pets, and owners live in constant fear of cat snatchers who swipe thousands a day to fuel this lucrative and international crime network.

Black cats are particularly targeted for their apparent medicinal value.

While the eating of dog meat in Asia is widely known, the sinister and hideous trade in stolen cats for the pot, known locally as thit meo, is not so much.

These images will be hard for any animal lover to stomach but the Mirror has decided to publish them in the hope it will help bring an end to this cruelty.

Rahul Sehgal, of Soi Dog, an organisation that put an end to the dog and cat meat trade in Thailand in 2014, said: "This year has been declared the Year of the Cat in Vietnam, with felines hailed as symbols of protection and good luck.

"It is time they were treated accordingly.

"The cats are stolen from outside loving homes and the streets before being transported in terrible conditions and slaughtered in view of one another using the crudest methods.

"Each point of the trade involves close contact between humans and these scared animals, and therefore possible exposure to diseases."

The World Health Organisation has warned that cat and dog meat is a threat to public health with the risk of rabies, trichinellosis and zoonotic diseases - viruses such as Covid which jump from animals to humans.