The Summer Olympics begin in Beijing on 8-8-08 at 8:08. (The Chinese being highly numerological people…)

But before you get overwhelmed by the happy-happy and pretty waving flags, remember that some things don’t change.

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of felines, but this is unnecessary no matter what.