Hospital blog post of dog attack victim sparks animal rights debate in China
- Images of six-year-old boy mauled by dogs goes viral
- Social media users have mostly come out in support of culling strays
A Chinese hospital’s blog post about saving a boy who had been attacked by dogs has been removed after it was criticised for being too graphic, even as it has sparked a heated online debate about animal rights.
The six-year-old boy was transferred to the Jiuquan People’s Hospital in northwest China’s Gansu province after being mauled by several stray dogs on October 14.
His scalp was severely torn and he had scratches all over his body, according to images the hospital posted on October 20 showing the surgery required to treat the boy.
An animal rights blog called Asia Animal Radio reposted the images on the social media service Weibo, calling the case “a medical dispute between dogs and doctors” and claiming that “some animal rights advocates were unhappy that the hospital was creating tension between people and dogs”.
The account is not officially verified by Weibo and has disabled comments on its original post.
The Weibo hashtag “boy’s scalp torn by dogs” has since been viewed 150 million times with more than 28,000 comments, most of which criticise “animal advocacy groups” for prioritising dogs over humans.