16 -
PENH
Penn
It was invited to demonstrate?
Salmon
Yes, it was asked to demonstrate what method they used in killing these cats.
Ponn
What method was used in this demonstration?
Salmon
I understand it was the system which is said to be age old - somehow getting the civet cat under the influence of liquor, of alcohol. And then giving it a sharp blow on the head with a hard instrument. And the outcome of the whole thing was that in the lack of any further evidence of the fact that there was brutal killing we had to assume that for the time being at any rate there was nothing further that we could do.
Penn
You've never heard of boiling water being poured over a civet?
Salmon
I've heard of it, but we haven't scon any evidence of it.
Access to such ritual is difficult for Westerners whose sensibilities
are well-known to the Chinese. But there is plenty of unbiased evidence that much nastier methods are commonly used. Wild civets are
exceedingly vicious, and a kitchen worker will avoid direct contact if he possibly can. This observer, a man of mixed race, is fluent in Cantonese and has lived in Hong Kong for most of his life.
Observer
Civet cats killed in restaurants are generally scalded, because the Chinese believe that by scalding the animal the goodness in the animal is kept inside.
Penn
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Do you actually know this have you seen it? (What?) The slaughter of civets?
Observer
Yes, I've seen that many times, many times.
Penn
Can you tell me exactly what they did?
Observer
Well, the civet is in a little wire cage and there is no move- ment at all. Scarcely any movement. The most the civet cat
can do is to turn around bit - turning circles. The wire cage is so small that there's no room for it to move or run, and so what they do is they use boiling water in a kettle and just