PETA blasts Peru's cat-eating festival

CANETE, Peru, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- An annual festival of fried cat-eating in Canete, Peru, has raised the ire of animal rights groups, officials with the groups said.

The "Gastronomical Festival of the Cat," a two-day event at the end of September, involves the eating of specially bred cats that locals claim can cure bronchial disease and work as an aphrodisiac, The Sun reported Wednesday.

A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sharply criticized the event.

"If Peruvians really eat poor old Moggy because they think his meat cures bronchitis, that's about as bizarre as it gets, although remember that Asians eat monkey bits thinking that will cure their impotence and even Europeans butcher poor old Bessie the cow or Henny Penny the hen, because they see them as nothing more than a bit of nourishment," the PETA spokesman said.