Cat theives: what do they do?

StefanZ

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with purebreed or otherwise interesting - worth money - they sell probably. Some keeps them as own.

Moggies are often sparring for fighting dogs - bullpits and such... cry:

Quite some is food for snakes... Those who wants their snakes to have living food must get it somewhere from - therefore they would tend to steal - or give "home" to saved kittens and gived away kittens.
This is one of the resons why never to give away a kitten or cat for free. Let them give an amount money to Red Cross, but dont get away for free.
 

evepie

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Originally Posted by enkeli-kitten

I heard that there are such things as cat thieves. If they stole a cat, what would they do with it?
i daren't even imagine
 

shadowsoul

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If you check a lot of Asian countries (with animal welfare laws that are not strictly enforced), they steal cats because they are considered food, yes, they cook cats!!!! I once went to Taiwan, and I saw stir-fried cat brisket ON the menu.
I went back to my hotel, and cried, and lost my appetite to eat
. Some, especially in China, capture them and skin these cats alive for their fur. From where I came from, in the Philippines, people make deal with certain Chinese folks and steal feral and stray cats, and kill them violently using straw, and use their skin as cover for kid's toy drum.


Sad reality, a lot of nations still have an achingly long way to go when it comes to treating animals with respect.

I have no biases or discrimation against Chinese nationals, while they are applauded for their many other aspects, animal welfare is something the people need to work on.

 

bab-ush-niik

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One of my cats was stolen. Not a purebred, but a lovely calico moggie with (surprise) a sweet disposition. One of our neighbors saw a truck drive up with a man and woman in it, pick up the cat, and drive off. He only got a partial plate. Police couldn't trace the plate. The cat wasn't even in our sidewalk, she was sitting on the front porch waiting for us to come home.

About a year later, we saw a truck about a block away, with the right color and plates that looked right. There was a cat meowing in the house. He also ignored the flyers we put up all over the neighborhood. Apparently he decided to keep a 7 year old girl's cat.

I will forever hate that couple.
 

enuja

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I don't, personally, find it credible that cats are ever skinned alive. Skinning is difficult, and requires something that's not moving. If someone is eating a cat, they are very likely to skin it after death. In the US, at least, there are many laws and a lot of oversight to animal use. The USDA's APHIS department has an "Animal Care" section which regulates animal welfare. Skinning alive wouldn't fly. I don't even think that people with no regulation would skin an animal alive. It just doesn't make sense. That wouldn't be for eating, that would be for torture. Deliberate torture. Which is a different thing from procuring food. If you think about it, all the torture with raising animals for food makes raising them easier -- putting them in crates, keeping then too densely, ect. Skinning alive would make things harder. Therefore, this is unlikely.

Unlikely, but, apparently, true. Here is a credible article that goes into quite a bit of detail. Some of it is very gruesome, but the worst bits at the end have a warning, and, generally, it's very informative. Short explination; there is a belief that cats who suffered right before death have better medicinal properties.

On the original point, some of the legislation that the Animal Care section of APHIS enforces exists to prevent the use (any kind of use) of stolen animals. People may break laws and try to get around things, but stolen cats are not allowed to be used as food or research, or anything like that.
 

malena

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It is true that they are skinned alive. The same things happens to dogs in northeast europe. They hang them first so they are slowly choked at the same time. The reason is that the fur fore some reason becomes more beatiful if the animal is kinned with the fur "raised" as if scared or angry. This doesn't happen if they are dead.
I visited China 14 years ago. Every village had a daily live-animal market where you could buy "food". It was so common it was impossible to avoid. I saw cats squeezed in to small cages with several floors. On the next level in the cage it could be snakes, rabbits or dogs. If you bought one they prepared it at place. I never stayed to see that but the ales i saw sold, was skinned alive.
I still have nightmares about this now and then.
I liked a lot of things in China but it was really a culture chock. I met a lot of very warm people during the monthes I stayed there but my general impression is that they have a completely different view on death and pain than we have both when it comes to people and animals. I also found them very rasistic. If you can abort a child - cutting it to peices alive - inside of the mothers whomb, and pic it out piece by piece from the mother - who was awake during this - in the sixth month of the pregnace. Then there is no borders. This happens still in Tibet since they are distinguish the native population there and using them for medical experiences while sterilising them systematically. The Human rights movement has a lot to do in China before the animal rights movement can even get a voice.
 

Moz

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Originally Posted by bab-ush-niik

One of my cats was stolen. Not a purebred, but a lovely calico moggie with (surprise) a sweet disposition. One of our neighbors saw a truck drive up with a man and woman in it, pick up the cat, and drive off. He only got a partial plate. Police couldn't trace the plate. The cat wasn't even in our sidewalk, she was sitting on the front porch waiting for us to come home.

About a year later, we saw a truck about a block away, with the right color and plates that looked right. There was a cat meowing in the house. He also ignored the flyers we put up all over the neighborhood. Apparently he decided to keep a 7 year old girl's cat.

I will forever hate that couple.
Have you tried to get her back?
People are just too cruel and insane for me to fathom.
 

StefanZ

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Originally Posted by Malena

The Human rights movement has a lot to do in China before the animal rights movement can even get a voice.
Yes. But even in China the development is going on forwards in these aspects.

Some month ago there were a wide spread film on Internet, with a chinese modern woman cuddling with a kitten on a bridge, but after a while slowly tramping it to death (I didnt had the strenght to see the entire film - did quit immediately I realized).
I did read that woman was traced down, and fired from her job...

There are also coming up some cat shelters and some tries to help homeless cats.
 

malena

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That is a good start. I think tourism is powerful factor to change the animals situation too. In the south of Spain I saw cats and dogs starving to death on the streets the first time I visisted. I didn't want to go back for years because of that even though my parents had a house there. Last year I was back in the same village and there was a lot new houses with people from Scandinavia an from UK who lived there most of the year. I didn't see any mistreated animals anymore. The ones I saw was social and well fed.
 

bab-ush-niik

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Have you tried to get her back? People are just too cruel and insane for me to fathom.
We found their car about 10 months after we got Patches (my "replacement" semi-feral calico that my parents got for me). The problem was, how do we prove they have our cat? The police couldn't go there just because the car plate was similar to the partial plate that my neighbor had. And even then, how do you prove it's the same cat? She wasn't microchiped.
 

theimp98

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If you ever go to china, or even just to hong kong i would suggest you not order snake soup. They skin the snake alive they say it adds to the favor of the soup.

and yes i saw this happen, I know this is about cats, but i just thougth i would add that infomation.

I have also seen people steal cats that have name tags then try to sale them back to the owners.
 

shadowsoul

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Originally Posted by theimp98

I have also seen people steal cats that have name tags then try to sale them back to the owners.
Ooh that's awful
If that happens to Oscar, I'd pay whatever they charge just give him back to me
 

lauracatlover

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I heard this thing on the news that said that most cats that are stolen get either beaten up, put in a fight with dogs, or even murdered.
There was also this one thing they said which was horrible: an old lady had her cat stolen, and the thieves cut off it's body parts (ears and feet I think) and posted them through her letterbox!
 

shadowsoul

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Originally Posted by lauracatlover

There was also this one thing they said which was horrible: an old lady had her cat stolen, and the thieves cut off it's body parts (ears and feet I think) and posted them through her letterbox!
That's immensely sick
Whoever who'd deliberately do that is seriously desensitized and can probably kill its own relatives at the slightest unsobriety
 

lizmarie

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That's sickening. People who do that should have the same done to them. They are just pigs (sorry no insult intended pigs). Tie them to a railway line!!!!!



No chance of me ever going to China.
 

koneko

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It's horrible that people can steal a cat and treat them so sickenly it really makes me sad. I just don't see how people can be so cruel.

Recently quite a few cats in my area have gone missing, people here think that maybe someone is stealing them. Only one of my cats goes out at the moment and he isn't friendly to strangers which is the only reason i feel slightly safer letting him out.
 

gizmocat

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Koneko, whether your cat is friendly or not is not the issue. A professional thief does not steal a cat by making friends with it.
I'd keep your cat at home, particularly since there is obviously something 'going on' in your neighborhood. I hope there's no tragedy but that is not the way to bet.
 
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