Because Mao likes cats

I know I really shouldn’t be finding happiness in this sort of story, but how can I not smile at writing like this:

Regarded as symbols of bourgeois decadence during the Mao era and only fit for the dinner table, dogs have become increasingly fashionable as pets in China in recent years.

I think all despotic regimes should have at least one item in their political platform that is both condemned and edible at the same time. On the other hand, clubbing dogs to death in front of their owners in the middle of the street strikes me as a bit much. Couldn’t they at least be sent to doggy forced labor camps, or trained as a special K9 brigade of the Red Guard? Perhaps used to invade Taiwan…