A thousand kittens were taken to a slaughterhouse to sell their meat as pork sausages

The Chinese police are about a thousand a cat rescued from a truck bound for a slaughterhouse, thwarting the illegal trade in fraudulently selling cat meat as pork or mutton, which has sparked fresh food safety concerns, reports CNN.

According to Chinese state news agency The Paper, officers in Zhangjiagang in east China’s Jiangsu province seized a vehicle used to collect and transport captured cats following a tip from animal rights activists.

Without intervention, the cats would likely have been slaughtered and shipped south to be served as pork and lamb skewers and sausages.

Police and agricultural authorities have since sent the cats to a nearby shelter after foiling the sale, which could have been worth up to $20,500.

The report did not say whether any arrests had been made, nor did it disclose whether the cats were strays or pets. In any case, CNN reported that animal rights activists first noticed a large number of wooden boxes overflowing with cats near a cemetery.

A pound of cat meat is reportedly sold at the market for about $4 when passed off as mutton and pork. Each cat weighs about four to five pounds after processing.