Blonde By Nature

There are 150 days left to go before the Beijing, Summer Olympics. I absolutely adore the Olympics and what they represent; they are about good ol’fashion competition, athleticism, unity and pride. The 5 rings represent the joining of the major continent’s and the torch representing life, harmony and most importantly, peace.

My excitement was shattered today when I heard that the Chinese government started a grotesque campaign to rid Beijing of all felines. They claim that cats may have contributed to the breakout in the SARS virus, which scares the population into discarding their family pets. After the SARS breakout in 2002-03, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung of the University of Hong Kong microbiology department reported that it was the civet cat that started the outbreak. They then looked to blame the next closest thing genetically to a civet, the typical house cat and ferret. Further to that, more research was done proving that it went beyond cat-like animals, but to tree dwelling animals. But then, Australian and Chinese researchers released this report saying that it was not the civet cats that started the outbreak; instead they were only 1 link in the chain.

The National Geographic reported something interesting amongst all this finger pointing and culling. Jonathan Epstein, a veterinarian and wildlife epidemiologist at the Wildlife Trusts Consortium for Conservation Medicine in Palisades in New York said, “It is becoming clear that the majority of emerging infectious diseases can be attributed to human activities that impact natural ecosystems.”

Where does that leave us? It leaves us with bats. On February 19th, researchers at Ohio State University released this article proving that it was bats who started the viral outbreak. Interestingly enough, they say, it was humans who passed the virus on to the civet cats.

So this very new information proves that bats are the cause of the outbreak. Yet, the Chinese government is still attributing the spread of SARS to felines. As a result they are punishing them by putting them into small cages, stacked on top of each other where they are unable to move and leave them there to die. They are not even put to a humane death. Why? To create the image of a “clean, green and welcoming” nation during the Games.

A testimonial from a Beijing doctor said that former president Jiang Zemin started culling dogs because he didn’t like them. Shortly thereafter the killing stopped because the foreign media put pressure on the government. Now, the culling has turned to cats.

Other initiatives that the government is taking:

• Polluting factories are being shut down and/or moved
• Limitations is being placed on drivers (allowed on the roads 3 times a week)
• Public transportation fares have been cut in some places but increased in others (to minimize public transit traffic)
• The homeless are given money to return to their homeland or moved to camps out of Beijing
• A nation-wide campaign is encouraging people to speak English and greet foreigners with a smile

My final thoughts…

The cats “may have contributed” to SARS, so-let’s-kill-them-all-inhumanely argument is lame. Obviously there are deeper cultural issues here that need exploring before they start slaughtering an entire species. Further more, without cats what will happen to the rat population?

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