Taco spelled backwards is…

Had your breakfast? If not, you might want to save this tidbit for another hour. Seems a current animal rights debate in China isn’t about freeing cats from the obligation of being pets. It’s freeing them from being eaten. The Chinese have a taste for pet food, says an Associated Press dispatch from Beijing. A recipe for a popular soup includes cat meat; butchers are happy to supply it. China even has a “major trading hub” for slaughterhouse cats. Naturally, PETA (which would rather you didn’t eat any meat) has weighed in on the butcher’s scale of Chinese cuisine. Cats carry a current price of $1.32 a pound  –  compared to 95 cents for dogs and 62 cents for chicken. Protesters have targeted this ancient tradition of turning Morris into mush. Lest we get too puffed up about our cultural superiority, we’re reminded of the remarks from the Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) character in “Little Big Man” about eating boiled dog with Native Americans: “Now I will admit, dog is greasy, but you’d be surprised how downright delicate the flavor is  -  especially when you’re starving.” We think we’ll side with PETA on this and get our dog food out of a can instead of putting Rover or Fluffy in a pot.

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