The country that eats the most cats is China.
China slaughters an estimated 4 million cats a year for human consumption.
Although most people in China don't eat cat meat, but the trade in cat meat still remains significant and is driven by local activists and markets that sell cat meat in various forms.
Vietnam is another country that eats the most cat meat, where the practice is increasing in popularity even though there are legal efforts to ban cat meat in Vietnam.
Indonesia is another country that eats the most cat meat, and the extreme market in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, has also featured cat meat for sale.
In Vietnam, cat meat is also considered to be a delicacy and is eaten by some people for good luck at the start of the lunar month.
Some people also eat cat meat for it's nutritional value, to provide them with energy or based on beliefs about the cat meats medicinal properties.
The trade in cat meat also involves extreme animal cruelty, with the cats often stolen, transported cruelly and then slaughtered with brutal methods.
Most of the cats that are slaughtered for human consumption are stolen pets and not just stray cats or feral cats.
Cats originated in the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, around 10,000 years ago.
Domesticated cats that originated in the Middle East's Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago, originated as wildcats were drawn to the abundant rodent populations around early human agricultural settlements.
And the earliest evidence of human and cat companionship is a 9,500 year old burial of a human with a cat on the island of Cyprus, which indicates transportation by boat.
The domestication of cats we know today was a mutually beneficial although not fully intentional process.
And early farmers stored grain, which also attracted rodents like mice and rats and the rodents in turn attracted wild cats who ate them.
And the availability of prey near human settlements also likely led to cats becoming accustomed to humans.
A 9,500 year old burial in Cyprus also shows a human and a cat buried together, and the cat's presence suggests that the cat was brought to the island by boat.
Genetic analysis also confirms that domestic cats also descended from the Near Eastern wildcat "Felis silvestris lybica".
Cats also spread with humans along trade routes and they were also very useful on ships that were transporting of grain from the Near East.
Cats, in the family of Felidae also first appeared in Asia around 10 to 15 million years ago, with their evolutionary radiation beginning in Asia during the Miocene epoch.
Modern domestic cats, although originated from the Near Eastern wildcat subspecies, "Felis Silvestris lybica" and were first domesticated around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, which is a region in the Middle East.