A Chinese pet owner’s search for their missing British shorthair cat has led to the discovery of a truck full of stolen felines in Guangzhou in southern China’s Guangdong province, more than 1,600 kilometres away.

Media reporting and social media discussion on the case has renewed public concern about China’s dog and cat kidnapping chain.

The cat’s owner, surnamed Zhang, lives in Huzhou in Zhejiang province in eastern China and first noticed her pet was missing on Jan 5.

The cat, named Mantou, was wearing a tracking device around its neck when it disappeared, which allowed Zhang to trace it to the neighbouring province of Jiangsu.

Zhang suspected that her cat had been stolen and called the police. However, after reviewing surveillance footage, the police said they could not find any conclusive evidence of theft and did not pursue an investigation.

Zhang then noticed that Mantou’s tracker had moved further south onto a highway and was travelling towards Guangzhou in southern China.

She decided to track down her cat by herself and flew to Guangzhou on Jan 7, suspecting that this was the destination of whoever had stolen Mantou.

Before boarding her flight, Zhang posted on social media asking for help: “My cat has been stolen and is being transported to Guangzhou on the highway. Can anyone help me? What government department should I call when I get to Guangzhou?”

Local cat rescue volunteers in Guangzhou saw the post and set up a WeChat group to help Zhang find Mantou.

While Zhang was on her flight, the local volunteers in Guangzhou located Mantou, and by the time she landed, Mantou and a few other cats had been found in cages on a truck.

Local police said the driver claimed that all the cats had been given to him by a friend. The driver was not arrested due to a lack of evidence.

The volunteers told the Yangtse Evening Post that they believed the cats were on their way to a slaughterhouse to be sold for human consumption.

A video story posted by the Yangtse Evening Post on Weibo about the case had been viewed by more than 100,000 people at the time of writing. Many people commented on the story calling for better pet protection laws in China.

One person said: “It’s hard to imagine what would have happened to the cats if they hadn’t been found in time.”

Another commenter said: “Ask for national legislation to ban pets as food!”

 - SCMP