cats especially domesticated cats, are rarely eaten, for reasons discussed under dog. However, Madeleine Ferrières (2006) paints a striking picture of early modern France where cat pelts were in high demand and their flesh often substituted for rabbit. (Rabbit, regulations held, had to be sold with the head on to ensure the genuine article.) ‘Roof rabbit’ and ‘gutter rabbit’ were common synonyms for cat. There are still faint echoes of this from Switzerland, where the pelts are still traded and, it is said, the meat sometimes eaten (flavoured with thyme). Still eaten, too, in S. China, where older people consider it warming and revivifying. The Fangji Cat Meatball Restaurant in Shenzhen (Guangdong) was forced by activists to close down in 2006. Other instances (especially in times of famine and distress) can be found, for instance among the Afro-Peruvian population of Peru, whose taste for cat, it is claimed, arose from lack of food in times of slavery.
