Fear of cats sold for meat looms large in Bengaluru
Worryingly, they are suspected to be selling cat meat to wayside eateries and government-run liquor shops.
Bengaluru: Fancy cat meat? You might recoil in disgust, but there are people who don’t. Last week, photos emerged on social media of stray cats being bagged and sold as meat in Chennai.
Animal activists say cat meat is a favourite of Nari Kuravas, ‘the fox people’ – a tribe said to have migrated from Western India, mainly Gujarat, and now spread across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telengana state/Andhra Pradesh. Worryingly, they are suspected to be selling cat meat to wayside eateries and government-run liquor shops.
“Omg...what kind of humans are these…,” was animal lover Richa Singh’s reaction to a Facebook post by Help Animal India which had photographs obtained from People for Animals showing tribals caught red-handed while selling stray cats in bags.
Help Animals India’s post says, “Believe it or not, stray cats are being caught and sold for meat and ‘medicine’, particularly in South India”. Sometimes, cats are reportedly boiled alive!
“Pet cats are reported missing in areas where these tribals live. They especially like the meat of black cats”, says S. Murlidharan, founder of Indian Centre for Animal Rights and Education. “Last year, we rescued 40 cats from these tribals in Chennai.”
Nari Kuravas also live on the outskirts of Bengaluru and parts of Karnataka that border Tamil Nadu, he added.
Ashish Raj Thakur of Hyderabad put up a FB post saying these tribals are found in that city, too, and raid residential areas at night for pet cats. “I (have) caught them red-handed many times. Beat them black and blue!!” he wrote. “Nari Kuravas also hunt wild animals like foxes and monkeys and sell their skulls. But no action is taken against them, or if they are caught they are fined a meagre amount and let off,” Murlidharan says.