Cat meat

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Companion animals in cuisine
Dog • Cat • Horse • Pig
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Cat meat is meat derived from cats. It is eaten sporadically in southern China and northern Vietnam where some people consider it a good warming food during winter months. The cat's stomach and intestines are eaten, as well as the thighs, which are turned into meatballs. The head and the rest of the animal are thrown away.^[1] Cats are sometimes boiled and made into a tonic as a folk remedy for neuralgia and arthritis in Korea, though the meat by itself is customarily not eaten.^[2]

With the rise of pet cat ownership in China, more people have become opposed to the traditional use of cat as food. In June 2006, approximately 40 animal activists stormed the Fangji Cat Meatball Restaurant, a local restaurant specializing in cat meat in Shenzhen, China. They managed to force the restaurant to shut down and discontinue its selling of cat meat.^[3] While cats are known to occasionally be eaten in Guangdong, Sichuan, and elsewhere, consumption of cat meat has been quite rare in China even compared to dog meat, and is unheard of in many areas.