Cats and dogs, whose meat is consumed by a minority of Chinese, have been excluded for the first time from an official list of edible animals that must be subject to regulation.
The text, submitted for comment until May 8, was published Wednesday by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and lists animals that can be raised for meat, fur or for medical purposes, excluding cats and dogs.
The consumption of these companion animals is legal, but it is extremely minority and arouses growing opposition.
“It is the first time that the Chinese government says cats and dogs are pets and not intended for consumption,” the American association Human Society International (HSI) said in a statement Thursday.
The latter estimates that 10 million dogs are killed each year in China for their meat. Thousands are slaughtered during the Yulin (South) dog meat festival, in conditions considered cruel by animal advocates, as they are beaten to death and even boiled alive.
This decision comes after the ban on trade and consumption of wild animals in February, a suspicious practice in the spread of the new coronavirus.
The wildlife trade had also been 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.
However, once that epidemic was over, trade had resumed rapidly.
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