[MAIL] Chinese activists and police have stopped a truck crammed full of 1,408 cats and dogs on a 750-mile journey to slaughterhouses for the meat trade in China.
Cruel conditions and rampant illness meant 370 had already died on what the activists are calling the 'death truck' from Fucheng, north China, to Yulin in the south.
China has no animal protection laws that charities can use to prosecute traders for cruelty, but the two truck drivers were able to be detained for transporting sick animals between provinces without the right paperwork.
Hao Da-yue of the Capital Animal Welfare Association (CAWA) activist group, which helped rescue the animals in Xiao Tao city, said: 'I've attended many rescues of dogs and cats from the meat trade, but never before have I encountered such a shocking scene.
'This was a death truck, crammed full with desperate, frightened, traumatised animals caged up with their dead and dying companions.' |