Visiting a pet market in Guangzhou

For some animal lovers the Yuehe Flower and Bird Market (越和花鸟鱼艺大世界) might be a paradise. Lots of different pets from cats and dogs to turtles, birds and squirrels. But to some animal lovers from the West it might be a terrible place. Too many animals in cages too small. Kittens looking sad and waiting for someone to offer them a better home.

After living in China for all most two years now, I know that animal rights aren’t quite on the same level than they are in Finland. Are there even any laws in China concerning having pets or treating animals? I was happily surprised that the pet market wasn’t as bad as I thought it to be. It was quite clean and  lacked the strong smell I was prepared for.

Yuehe is a pet market, not a food market. Even though Chinese people eat dog meat for example (you can even get it near where I live), pets and food are a different thing. There are cases when pet dogs have been stolen for restaurants, but I still believe that no one intentionally wants to eat anyone’s pet.

The pet market is not just for buying animals, there are also many shops for pet products. So if you are a pet owner in Guangzhou, this is the place to buy climbing trees for your cat (I bought one and you can see the picture here!), toys for your parrot and everything you need for your fish aquarium.

Have you visited a pet market in China? Was it worse or better than Yuehu market in Guangzhou? Are there pet markets like this in your home country?