It was previously reported by Internet users that a pork processing point in the Sichuan Chengdu Win River region had a large number of stray cats, which had attracted the attention of netizens. In the afternoon, the head of the local department concerned responded to a report from a journalist who stated that he had taken the first steps to deal with the report, that 131 stray cats had been found on the scene, that the premises concerned had been banned by law and that the persons concerned would be dealt with by law.
Web-based videos show that a large number of stray cats are in cages, with dark light and poor sanitation. On the morning of 3 March, journalists went to the scene of the incident, where residents of the neighbourhood said they did not know the exact location, and residents said that community workers came in the early hours of the morning, but that there were no stray cats in the dilapidated factory they operated.
In the afternoon of 3 March, the head of the relevant department in Winjiang District responded that, after following a briefing by the netizens in the early hours of 2 February, the authorities and the territorial town authorities immediately went to the site to conduct an on-site investigation and verification.
“The site of the incident was an empty pigsty room belonging to a group of eight groups in the community of Zhengjiang, Wenjiang District, which was rented by a non-resident tenant, Koichi Zhang Zhou, as a temporary place for the transfer of stray cats from 20 March, where 131 stray cats were found without signs of slaughter or mutilation.” According to the official.
On the issue of the “piggy meat processing site” in the video, and according to officials of the town's government, following an on-site verification, the site was defunct, unrelated to stray cats, and its demolition was prohibited by law.
The head of the Enlightenment Small Animal Protection Centre in Winjiang told reporters that at around 6 a.m. on 2 a.m., several volunteers sent the cats involved to the protection centre, “a total of 131, both young and small, and other species”. The officer-in-charge stated that all cats were currently being immunised and separated to ensure the health of stray cats and that adoption channels would be opened to society.
The local heads of the relevant departments also indicated that, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act on Animals, Zhang ' s actions would be investigated in accordance with the law, illegal trafficking in unsanitary animals would be investigated, with a focus on combating unsanitary animal trade.