Here's a somewhat complicated story from Chennai, which focuses on cat meat being sold as mutton and other deceptions, and on pet cats being killed. But what caught my eye is that there is an ethnic group that enjoys eating cats:
In Chennai, a debate about cat meat after NGO’s crackdown on nomadic community
The Narikoravar are a marginalised group, traditionally known to kill feral cats for meat.
"The Narikoravar are a dwindling community. There are only around 200 families left in Chennai now, said Rajkumar, former president of Tamil Nadu’s Narikoravar community. They originally lived in forests and were hunters. Now, Rajkumar said, most of them make a living collecting paper and plastic from garbage cans and selling them to waste paper shops, earning less that Rs 100 a day. In 2016, the community was included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Tamil Nadu.
The Narikoravar are traditionally known to kill feral cats and eat their meat. “Now they have moved to the city, so them killing domestic cats isn’t justified,” Pereira argued. “It is not categorised as food in India. Slaughter that happens anywhere outside a slaughter house is illegal. And more than anything, it’s an act of cruelty. Cats are trapped, kept in little cages and gunny bags.”
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HT: Mostly Economics blog, by Amol Agrawal.
In Chennai, a debate about cat meat after NGO’s crackdown on nomadic community
The Narikoravar are a marginalised group, traditionally known to kill feral cats for meat.
"The Narikoravar are a dwindling community. There are only around 200 families left in Chennai now, said Rajkumar, former president of Tamil Nadu’s Narikoravar community. They originally lived in forests and were hunters. Now, Rajkumar said, most of them make a living collecting paper and plastic from garbage cans and selling them to waste paper shops, earning less that Rs 100 a day. In 2016, the community was included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Tamil Nadu.
The Narikoravar are traditionally known to kill feral cats and eat their meat. “Now they have moved to the city, so them killing domestic cats isn’t justified,” Pereira argued. “It is not categorised as food in India. Slaughter that happens anywhere outside a slaughter house is illegal. And more than anything, it’s an act of cruelty. Cats are trapped, kept in little cages and gunny bags.”
************
HT: Mostly Economics blog, by Amol Agrawal.
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