Are Chennai's missing cats ending up as 'mutton' biryani?

In Pallavaram locality of Chennai pet cats are disappearing at an alarming rate. The residents of this locality are repeatedly facing the trauma of their disappearing pet cats. 

Many of the residents who have lost their pet cats in the recent times are suspecting that the cats –pet and stray are vanishing in the Narikuravas tribal settlement which is located near Pallavaram, reported The Times of India. 

In fact, two residents of Pallavaram, Shameem Banu who reportedly lost six cats since the month of February this year and R Venkatesh, a software quality analyst, visited the suspected settlement and saw three cats trapped in a cage and one more inside a sack.

Banu claimed that she proposed to buy the cat but the people at the settlement refused, and a man who looked drunk told them that the animal would be used for biryani, the daily quoted Banu as saying.  

In fact, for the Narikuravas cat meat is a delicacy and animal welfare activists claim that they supply the meat to local butcher shops in Pallavaram. In October 2016, volunteers of the People for Animals (PfA) with the help of local police rescued 16 cats from the Narikurava settlement. The national daily quoted the founder of this NGO, Shiranee Periera, as saying that cat meat is openly sold in the weekly market of Pallavaram and they ends up as ‘mutton’ in biryani.

The number of disappearing stray and pet cats has forced the residents of the surrounding localities to seek the help of police. The police would take cognisance of the complaints and will rescue the cats, but a more comprehensive approach is required, TOI quoted DSP of St Thomas Mount, PSC Kalyan as saying. Since the Narikuravas are backward socially as well as economically, administrative involvement is needed for find more effective alternative solution to the problem, he added.

• Chennai
• Cat
• Missing cats
• pet cats
• cat meat