OMG! Chennai roadside stalls sell cat meat biryani, police rescues 16 cats

Chennai: Eating cats and dogs may sound strange in this part of the country but a joint team of police and an animal rights organisation here has made some startling revelations.

They have found out that some roadside eateries in Chennai's Pallavaram area sell cat meat biryanis to a special group of customers.

According to the Times of India, volunteers from the People for Animals (PfA) along with police have rescued 16 cats which were kept for their meat from the Narikorava settlement in Pallavaram on Friday.

PfA volunteer Sagar Sheth, who was part of the operation, said they received information that pet cats were trapped by the narikorvas,

It is alleged that on weekends narikorvas, a south Indian gypsy tribe, skin the cats and sell the meat to roadside eateries in and around Pallavaram.

The meat is reportedly used in biryani.

The report said that two PfA volunteers befriended a couple of narikorava youths after visiting their settlement on Thursday.

They reportedly asked them to demonstrate how the cats are trapped and then skinned. The volunteers recorded the demonstration and the footage was later handed over to the police.

At the time of the raid on Friday morning at the narikorava settlement, all the 16 cats were kept in a single cage, and they were not provided water to drink, the report claimed.

Police had received complaints about pet cats being stolen from various residential areas and kept in narikorava settlement, the report said citing Pallavaram police inspector G Venkatesan.

"When the PfA volunteers approached us for help, our team went and rescued the cats," he was quoted as saying.