Around 1,300 cats that were rescued from the dinner table are facing an uncertain future as animal activists ponder their fate in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The health and survival of the animals were also concerns, a pet lover surnamed Wang, leader of the rescue, told Xinhua Thursday.

The cats had been locked up in iron cages at a store in Tianjin in preparation for shipping to meat dealers in the southern province of Guangdong before they were rescued by more than 100 pet lovers and animal welfare volunteers from Tianjin and Beijing on Tuesday.

The number of rescued felines was previously reported as 800, but volunteers found 1,300 alive and a small number of dead kittens and a dead pregnant female, Wang said.

"But we may have celebrated too soon. The traders injected the cats with stimulants to keep them alive during transportation. According to my experience, some weak cats will die as soon as the effect wears off in seven to 10 days," Wang said.

Pet lovers and animal welfare volunteers are keeping the cats in hundreds of cages, each containing three of the same sex. Local people have donated food and blankets for the animals.

Two days after their rescue, all the cats were still being housed in three abandoned classrooms of Asia Primary School, in Tianjin's Hongqiao district, waiting for claimants or would-be adopters, Wang said.

Asked where the cats would go, Lu Di, chairwoman of the China Small Animal Protection Association based in Beijing, said "A base for abandoned animals will be established in Tianjin to keep the cats."

Lu told Xinhua that a "1-yuan donation" campaign would be launched nationwide to fund bases for abandoned animals in 10 cities, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin, where small-animal trading was common.

"The number of rescued animals is numerous, while the accommodation at the base in Tianjin is rather limited," said Wang. "Perhaps no more than 20 percent of the rescued cats can be held. But if we set the remaining 80 percent free, they will probably be caught and traded again."