By the garbage can in a small district of Tianjin, seven puppets and blue cats were crumbling in broken boxes, with clear roots in their ribs, and furs formed into pieces. These “nobility cats”, which were once held in hand, today have no strength to look up — no one can think that the reason for their abandonment is “too much hair for the master”.
Abandonment site: valuable cats become “street beggars”
The witness, Aunt Zhang, shed tears and said: “It was raining yesterday, and they were shaking in boxes, and the cat I fed became porridge, but the children had no strength to lick.” When Captain Lee arrived at the scene, the animal rescue station found that the cat variety was endemicly severely malnourished:
Muppet Cat "Girls": The original owner bought it for $8,000. He's under four pounds. Paper
Blue Cat Ball: once the treasure of the cathouse town store, like a future leg ulcer, cat plague tested positive.
Golden Thrust "More": There are still undefunct surgical lines in the neck, presumably abandoned after surgery
Even more distressing is the total loss of survival in the wild of these domestic cats: they do not know how to lower their mouths in the face of the chicken breast that they feed. Captain Lee shakes his head: "They can't even go through the trash cans and throw themselves directly out in the wilderness, amounting to a death sentence for Mao's children."
Data reveal: The cold-blooded truth behind cat-spectling.
Data from the China Society for the Protection of Small Animals show an increase of 180 per cent in the number of cases of cat abandonment in 2025, including:
65 per cent because of "agitation to buy trouble" (e.g. hair loss, furniture scratching)
Twenty-three per cent is the remains of cathouses (with illness, disability).
12% abandoned because of illness (an average of over $10,000 for cat abdominal treatment)
"Some people buy cats like bags, throw them after the season." The case presented by Captain Lee was shocking: a cathouse in Beijing threw a cat with a cat with a cat in a shoe box in the park, and a puppet cat after sterilization by the Shanghai White collar was abandoned at the subway station on the grounds that it was “too noisy”. Even more ironically, when the cats were abandoned, they wore a 3,000-dollar custom collar around their necks.
Survivors: How can a domesticated “nobility” live?
After decades of election, domestic cats have lost their wild survival instincts:
Hunting ability: Long-term consumption of imported cat food, not even the smell of rats.
Responsive: car horns can hold them back. Close
Disease resistance: unvaccinated stray cats, with 90 per cent mortality from cat plague (data from China Agricultural Institute 2025)
Experiments at Tianjin College of Agriculture show that the average survival time of an abandoned variety of cats is only 21 days, well below 68 days for a cat. Even more brutal is the fact that these cats are more likely to be targeted by the cat dealers because of their "nobility" status. Captain Lee had rescued the Garfield cat who was being held in a cage for transport to the dog's shop, with unopened cat climbing in the cage.
Hopes for relief: The eager people are holding up the “temporary shelter”
Fortunately, the seven cats met the King who kept feeding. He brought cat food, anti-inflammation pills and even built them in old clothes on electric cars every day.” Looking at them, he remembered the old cat I had for 12 years.” His persistence has touched his neighbours and 13 families have now joined the feeding team, with people specializing in the cleaning of cat sands and people donating idle cat nests.
But the rescue station frankly said that this kind of relief was like a hit on a mole:
Medical gap: A cat plague treatment cost more than $5,000, unaffordable for ordinary helpers
Adoption dilemmas: sick cats are unsuspected and healthy cats are rejected because of their “generic cat” (specified by a pet hospital, where adoption rate is only 38%)
Second abandonment: a platform data shows that adopted cat breeds have a 40% rate of second abandonment within 3 months.
Deep thinking: Cats don't buy toys, they sign a contract.
Dr. pet Zhang Ming said, "Please answer three questions before raising a cat — can you accept that it scratches the couch? Can you pay $2,000 a year for medical treatment? Can you guarantee that 15 years will not be abandoned?" Even more alarming is the fact that some of the cathouses create “low-maintenance” lies for promotion:
"Puppet Cats are gentle."
"Blue Cats are not easily ill" (as high as 30% of hidden genetic diseases, e.g., multiple kidneys)
"Guffy Cats fit for newcomers."
Also of concern at the legal level is the fact that according to the Animal Disease Prevention Act, abandonment of animals is punishable by up to $3,000, but only 3 cases were investigated in 2025 in Tianjin.” The difficulty of obtaining evidence is crucial, and counsel, Liu Yang, explains that “it is difficult to characterize unless there is surveillance to record the owner's abandonment”.
Breaking the road: from abandonment to responsible “Mauritian Child Convention”
Addressing such issues requires a wide range of efforts:
At the governmental level: promotion of the pet chips system, where abandonment can be traced (42 per cent reduction in abandonment rates after the Shanghai pilot)
At the commercial level: Cats are required to pay a liability bond for follow-up medical assistance
Individual level: signature of adoption promise, specifying the rights and obligations of both parties
As the netizens say, "You can have countless reasons to change your cell phone, but you're the only child in life." And remember when we shine cats on social platforms — they don't need praise, they don't want to leave. After all, it's the cat breed that's abandoned today, and tomorrow could be any life around me.