Biggest cat rescue yet succeeds in China

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2009:

BEIJING–More than 200 animal advocates on November 24, 2009
converged on the Hongqiao district of Tianjin, about 70 miles from
Beijing, to free more than 800 cats from a trader who intended to
export them to Guangzhou, far to the south, for sale to cat meat
restaurants.
More than 200 people surrounded the caged cats for more than
24 hours and beseiged the Shaogongzhuang police station for three
hours, reported Li Qian of the Global Times, before Qin Xiaona,
head of the Beijing-based Capital Animal Welfare Association,
managed to meet with police and arrange for the cats’ release. The
trader claimed the cats were strays, but the rescuers pointed out
that they were clean and many wore collars and bells.
The mass cat rescue was the latest and largest of many such
incidents occurring in China since 2007.