$ perl -E '
 use utf8;
 use Data::Dumper;
 my $data = qq( { "cat" : "text – abcd" } );
 print Dumper($data);
 '
$VAR1 = " { \"cat\" : \"text \x{2013} abcd\" } ";

##</code><code>##


$ perl -E 'use utf8;
 my $data = qq( { "cat" : "text – abcd" } );
 say $data
 '
Wide character in say at -e line 4.
 { "cat" : "text – abcd" }

##</code><code>##

$ perl -E 'use utf8;
 my $data = qq( { "cat" : "text – abcd" } );
 binmode STDOUT, ":utf8";
 say $data;
 '
 { "cat" : "text – abcd" }