Source: Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats.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.
It looks as if the Chinese authorities are moving on to cut down on "cat rights", probably because human rights is so low that they need something new to take a shit on to have something to do.
At least there's some people who don't agree with the government (In this case, the term guardian angel is probably a better description):
Retired doctor Hu Yuan, 80, runs one of the few remaining refuges for abandoned pets in her ramshackle home in the ancient Long Tou Jing area of Beijing.
She shares her tiny home with 250 abandoned cats and has taken in 70 over the past 12 months alone.
She pays for neutering and food from her pension and donations. She said: "If I don't take them in, the government will kill them.
"People believe what the government tells them and that is why they are abandoning more and more family pets."
She said the problem could be traced back to former president Jiang Zemin for the crackdown.
"He didn't like dogs so he decided to have dogs killed. But there was a bad reaction from the foreign media and they were pressured to stop.
"Now they have stopped killing dogs but the new victims are cats. It is all connected to the Olympics."
Cats are regularly dumped on her doorstep late at night by owners frightened by the government campaign.
"The situation is very bad now," said Ms Hu. "When women get pregnant, the doctor will ask them if they have a cat in the house.
"If they reply Yes, they tell them, 'You must get rid of it, it will be bad for the baby'.
"I keep all the cats in my house and 100 of them sleep in my bedroom at night. I am too frightened to let them out. If they go outside, they will be taken away and killed.
"The government is not telling people the truth. Look at me. I live with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week and I am very healthy."
