A new day dawns for cats and dogs in southern China

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2011:

WUXI, China–Tipped off at 10 p.m. on August 3, 2011 that
truckers planned to illegally haul a load of cats to live markets in
Guangzhou, Guangdong at dawn, disguised as a cargo of furniture,
members of the Wuxi Animal Protection Association in Jiangsu province
mobilized overnight to intercept the truck at a toll booth at about
5:00 a.m. on August 4.
The truckers had nearly convinced the first authorities on
the scene that the load was only furniture, but “Conveniently,
right at that very moment, one little cat stuck her small head and
shoulders out of one of the cages at the top of the truck, looking
around curiously,” said a WAPA media release, translated by
volunteer Joy Gao.

Police turned over to WAPA about 260 cats. The interception
came just 10 days after WAPA freed nearly 400 cats following a
similar incident.
Within Guangdong, meanwhile, Jiangmen city officials
retreated from an announced plan to kill any dogs seen in public
after August 26. Provoking a storm of protest, the plan was
announced in response to the deaths of 42 residents from rabies
during the past three years. “This planned cull is not scientific,
not humane, and the results will not last,” responded Tang Qing,
M.D., of the National Institute for Viral Disease Control &
Prevention at the China Center for Disease Control. Tang Qing
recommended a vaccination campaign instead.