Is there cat in this?

My parents have really good friends who they take trips with. It's adorable and very empty-nesty of them. All of their pictures of them with one of us kids on their hip or frazzled smiles and peanut butter on their outfit while on vacation are behind them. They miss us. They really do. On one of these aforementioned trips my parents ate at a buffet in Chinatown. My dad found some mystery meat and was over the buffet entirely. He called it cat, as a joke.

Turns out people in China still really do eat cat and what creeped me out even more was that they eat dog too. I guess the Chinese government decided that, like the foot wrapping tradition of years gone by, this whole pet eating thing needed to stop. Anyone caught eating dog or cat will be fined over $700 US and businesses selling dog or cat meat could face fines of over $7,000 US. That's a pretty hefty pricetag for eating a pooch.

Supposedly eating dog warms you up. I have heard the same about seal. Just looking at my little puppy warms me up inside, but I really can't imagine eating her. Cats were actually not eaten as regularly in China as most Chineses restaurant jokes would assume. Superstition it seems is the reason for this; cats are thought to come back and seek revenge. I kind of believe this. That adorable cat you see in my picture was probably plotting out his next leg that he would pad his claws into. Cats are sassy, sassy enough to seek revenge even after death.

The best part of the AOL Slash/Food blog that I read this information from is the comments left under it. My reaction to this post was: GO CHINA! You may have messed up with the whole blocking facebook from your citizens thing, but you definitely took the right step in banning dog and cat consumption.

Some people who commented went all but-this-is-a-cultural-tradition on the story. I just can't imagine dogs really being a worth-while sorce of meat and I know for a fact that most cats are not. Is Chinese culture really going to suffer from this loss? I have a feeling that would be a negative, and I know for a fact that if I was starving the goats would go first. The cat licks my toes and drools (it doesn't get much cuter or quirky than that) and the dog wakes me up with sloppy puppy kisses.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily