A group of Chinese animal protection volunteers saved around six hundred cats from certain death on Thursday when a truck carrying the animals overturned in the busy city of Changsha. This was no ordinary rescue, however — the cats were headed for dinner plates and soup bowls in southern China. “It was easy to tell they were meant to be eaten,” said Xu Chenxin, a member of the Changsha Small Animal Protection Association. News source Business Insider also noted that many of the cats were “white and plump,” suggesting a certain appreciation for the feline food group.

Luckily for the cats, this story has a happy ending. The Changsha Small Animal Protection Association paid the truck driver the equivalent of $1,600 for the animals and are currently in the process of finding homes for all of them. No word on how many dinner plans were ruined by the unexpected rescue, but we’re pretty sure the cats don’t mind.

H/T Business Insider

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Erika Grant is an Orange County native in a long-distance relationship with the Bay Area. She's enthusiastic about all things vegan/vegetarian, has cheese dreams on the regular that make it difficult to commit to the vegan lifestyle, and gets obscenely excited about avocados in anything.