Just a day after a horrific story of a Chinese security guard pouring scalding water over a pregnant cat went viral on social media, the call for legislation against animal abuse is top trending on Weibo.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV initiated the hashtag “CCTV calls for rapid legislation against animal abuse” (#央视呼吁禁止虐动物尽快立法#), which received 510 million views on Thursday.
The state media outlet stated that society is against animal cruelty, but that this opposition can now only exist on a “moral level,” rather than legal. “Whenever animal cruelty happens, people can only condemn it,” CCTV wrote, adding that they look forward to seeing laws against animal abuse be implemented as soon as possible.
According to CCTV, many delegates already raised the issue of animal cruelty laws during this year’s Two Sessions, (lianghui), China’s largest annual legislative meetings.
China currently has no laws preventing animal abuse. But over the past few years, the voices calling for the legal protection of animals in China have become louder.
Every now and then, extreme stories of animal abuse become the topic of the day on Chinese social media. Sometimes, Chinese netizens take matters into their own hand; they spread personal information on the animal abusers online. This phenomenon where Internet users hunt down and punish people is known as the ‘Human Flesh Search Engine‘, and it often comes into action in cases connected to animal cruelty.
In one 2016 case of a man abusing a dog, for example, a group of animal welfare activists traced the man down, dragged him out of his house and publicly shamed him and beat him up.
In 2017, netizens cried out for rapid implementation of animal welfare legislation in China after a heartbreaking video of a young girl holding her killed dog went viral on social media. Her dog was shot by a neighborhood guard with an air gun.
Two years ago, another brutal case of pet killing also shocked Chinese social media users, when a Chongqing man threw his golden retriever and a pregnant cat from the 21st floor of his apartment building. The man allegedly committed the cruel act after learning his wife was pregnant and not wanting her to keep pets in the house.
This week, it was captured on video how a security guard in Shandong, Taiyuan, poured boiling water over a pregnant stray cat while she was captured in a cage. The cat was treated at a local animal hospital, where vets found that all of her unborn babies had died. The mother cat died soon after. After the story became trending, Chinese netizens soon exposed the man’s address and personal details. The man has since been fired from his job.
Trending on Weibo today is the very cruel incident (captured on video) of a man pouring scalding water over a stray pregnant cat. People are furious, now sharing all his personal information online. Don't fu*k with cats! pic.twitter.com/mIlfp8S2qw
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) October 21, 2020
As the many social media stories and trends over recent years have shown, this is definitely not the first time for people to call for animal abuse laws. It is more uncommon, however, for a state media outlet to make such a statement.
CCTV also asked Weibo users whether or not they would support an animal welfare law, with virtually all commenters responding that they would also like to see such laws be implemented as soon as possible.
“People who abuse animals have serious problems, legislation is needed,” some Weibo users wrote, with others saying: “[These laws] need to come soon, we need them now, and I hope they’ll be strict.”
However, there is also skepticism about CCTV’s call for immediate legislation on animal abuse.
“When I was studying at university this was already called for, but we’ve waited so many years already,” one lawyer writes: “I haven’t seen any progress being made.”
Others also comment that “the law is always lagging behind.”
Read more about discussions on animal rights in China here.
By Manya Koetse
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