Monday, August 27, 2012

23 Reasons Animal Lovers Should Boycott China - Reason #19: China Kills Baby Mice for Delicacy Dish


In one particularly horrifying Chinese dish, baby mice are eaten live

[When I started this blog in 2008, my first post was about a dog who was chained inside a gallery and starved as part of an "artwork." Since then, animal welfare has remained a primary theme on 13.7 Billion Years. Over the years, I have learned about countless stories of animal cruelty here in the United States and across the world. But one country has shown the most blatant and widespread disregard for the lives and well-being of non-human animals: China. As Mahatma Gandhi wisely observed, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." If China is to become a great nation, it has a lot of work to do. One way concerned people can help put pressure on China to change is to stop buying Chinese goods. More than 2.3 million people worldwide have signed the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, and the number of animal lovers around the globe is much greater. Imagine if all of them stopped purchasing Chinese products. So, every weekday for the month of August, I'll give animal lovers one reason to boycott China—23 reasons in all. It will not be an easy month to digest all the horrific stories and cruel practices. But I have placed great value in a quote by the late philosopher Albert Schweitzer: "Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." This month, I'll be doing that, and I hope you will too. -- Reynard Loki]

In his memoir, The Attic: Memoir of a Chinese Landlord's Son, Chinese author Guanlong Cao describes a famous dish called Baby Mice:

"A baby mouse is only as big as the last segment of your little finger. Pink. No hair…The squirming babies are put in a small gilded-porcelain dish and brought to the table. Simultaneously, a dish of sauce is served: mustard, wild pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, white vinegar, brown sugar, and so on…You just pick one up with pointed, ivory chopsticks and drop it in the sauce. It rolls and wiggles, coating its body with all the spices. Then you pick it up again and pop it in your mouth."


In her New York Times review of Cao's book, author Wendy Lesser writes, "Horrified readers will perhaps be a little less enraged at me if I mention that this is the least sickening description in the chapter. The accounts of flaying and eating live monkeys, live birds and fish, and live dogs were too painful even to transcribe."

Japanese travel blogger Hiroki writes that the dish is called "San Zhi Er," which is literally translated as "Three Screams."

"The reasons why it's called the Three Screams," he writes, "is because the baby mice would scream once when they are picked up with chopsticks. Its second scream comes when they are dipped in the sauce and seasoning. The final scream would occur when they would be put in the eaters mouth."

ACTION ALERTS
  • Join over 611,000 people around the world who have signed a PTROA petition urging the Chinese government to pass animal welfare laws
  • Sign a ForceChange petition urging Tesco to stop selling live turtles for human consumption in China
  • Sign a Change.org petition urging the Tongan Government to stop the export of turtle shell from Tonga to China
  • Sign the Humane Society's "Be Cruelty-Free" pledge to say no to cosmetics animal testing
  • Sign a Care2 petition urging Chinese authorities to crack down on illegal imports of pangolins
  • Join over 785,000 people who have signed an Avaaz petition urging EU leaders to push CITES to suspend trade in all rhino products
  • Join Stella McCartney and sign the PETA pledge to be leather-free
  • Sign a Born Free Foundation petition to increase the protection of elephants from the bloody ivory trade
  • Sign a Griddix petition urging U.S. President Barack Obama and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso to officialy ask to the Chinese government to stop the brutal practice of eating dog meat and to immediately end the terrible tortures to which dogs are subjected in China
  • Sign a Change.org petition urging Nestle Purina to recall chicken jerky treats made in China
  • Sign a Care2 petition urging Chinese president Hu Jintao to stop killing endangered species
  • Sign a Change.org petition to stop the sale of "living keychains"
  • Sign a Care2 petition asking the Chinese government to ban shark finning
  • Sign PETA's Pledge to Be Fur-Free
  • Sign a ForceChange petition to protect threatened populations of Asian musk deer
  • Sign a Care for Chinese Animals petition to ban dog and cat meat in China
  • Join Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bono, Ricky Gervais, Roger Moore, Susan Sarandon, Anjelica Huston, Jeremy Irons, Paula Abdul, Joan Jett, Annie Lennox, Elton John and thousands of others who have signed the TigerTime petition urging Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to call for an end to all tiger trade in China
  • Sign a Change.org petition to close China's bear bile farms
  • Sign the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW)
  • Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter
23 REASONS ANIMAL LOVERS SHOULD BOYCOTT CHINA
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image: The Chinese dish "Three Screams" consists of eating newly born baby mice; they are so fresh that they are still blind and are hairless (Hiroki)
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