Shanghai: punish the cat traders

The letter was traslated in English by volunteers from China Youth Animal Protection Alliance


We undersign the following Letter:

Honorable Mayor of Shanghai,

We are citizens of Guangdong province and Shanghai city. We learnt about the incident which took place on Sept. 8th. Cats were being stolen, traded and shipped by Tongchuan Rd. cat dealers, who also trapped sparrows and assault innocent citizens. Though the incident has been reported to the Putuo police station, we still need to point out that sparrows are specified in Chinese animal conservation laws as protected animal species. The cat dealers have violated laws by killing these birds for bait.

We are shocked by the fact that these criminals have been stealing cats for decades with dirty tricks such as using sparrows as baits. Their crimes have caused huge loss for the people and the country alike, yet they have never been punished. Zhang Zhenan, the major cat dealer, has stated that he had run this business for more than 30 years. Though appeals of stopping these illegal activities had been made by Shanghai citizens many times, official efforts are hardly seen. Therefore we strongly ask the government of Shanghai city to take further investigations and actions so as to stop their crimes and cruel behaviors as well as to prevent these criminals from endangering the public security. We also urge for the punishment of Zhang Zhenan, the leading cat dealer and his fellow gangs.  

Zhang Zhenan and his fellow criminals have been running the business of stealing and selling cats for decades. They are reaping huge profit by stealing, robbing and poisoning pets. Their illegal activities, defying the dignity of law, continuously do harm to society and people.

The cat thieves' gang led by Zhang Zhenan has violated the following rules and regulations:

I. Violating Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Administration of Registration of Companies

This gang stealed, imprisoned, illegally transferred cats to Guangdong Province without a business license.

II. Violating Animal Epidemic Prevention Law of the People‘s Republic of China

Pursuant to Animal Epidemic Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China and Regulations on Inspection And Quarantine of animals, any consignor of animals or animal products to be transported by railways, highways, waterways or by air must provide the quarantine certificate in consigning for shipment. Any consignee must undertake the shipment on the strength of the quarantine certificate. According to the regulation which is adopted by The Ministry of Agriculture in 2011, the issue of quarantine certificate of cat shall have the breeding records and the quarantine records. However, China have no large-scale cat farms. Thus most cats caught by the gang are pets which are seldom vaccinated. So the traffic of cats in two ways have violated laws: transport cats without the quarantine certificate which violates Animal Epidemic Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China to Article 44; transport cats with an illegal quarantine certificate which violates Animal Epidemic Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China to Article 25. In a word, these affirm their violation of laws.

III. Endangering public safety due to stealing

The criminal gang led by Zhang hired thieves to steal cats from communities, which causes hazards to security of citizens’ personal safety and properties. Some aged people asked to get back their pets but were assaulted by the criminal gang. Our society have zero tolerance toward these brutal behaviors.

IV. Violation of Wild Animal Protection Law by hunting national protected animals

On the site of transporting cats, more than 20 bodies of sparrows were found. As sparrows are valuable national protected animals, the gang uses the sparrow as bait to trap the cats, which is definitely violating the law.

Unfortunately the gang remains at large, though their criminal activities have been revealed in reports by the media and caring people. The gang  formed a criminal chain of stealing, imprisoning, illegal trafficking , which can bring them excessive profits. Their behaviors are flagrant violations of laws.

Herewith, we appeal to the government as follows:

1. Shanghai public security bureau, industrial & commercial bureau and inspection & quarantine department of animals shall set up a case so as to the gang led by Zhang. Their crime shall be punished by law and the sentence shall be informed to the public.

2. Joint efforts of related departments should monitor markets and butchery in prevention of such illegal behaviors. Also, the government should encourage the public to expose dens which relate to illegal cat trades.

We are looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

__________________________________

You can send polite comments to the Mayor:  xfb02@shanghai.gov.cn  and fax number 86-21-63585038