China’s state media calls for animal abuse to be illegal after cat and unborn kittens killed by boiling water

Security guard fired after report of pouring scalding water on pregnant stray cat because he believed it stole his sausage

China’s netizens have created momentum around the issue of animal cruelty and individual cases in the absence of legal consequences

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A cat and its unborn kittens died after a security guard in China’s Shanxi province poured boiling water over the cat. Photo: Weibo

Published: 1:39pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 10:56pm, 23 Oct 2020

China’s state broadcaster CCTV called for legislation against animal abuse after news of a Chinese security guard pouring boiling water over a pregnant cat went viral on social media.

“It is the consensus of the whole society to say no to cruelty against animals, but incidents of cruelty and killing of animals still occur from time to time,” the broadcaster said in an article published on its Twitter-like Weibo account on Thursday.

“Faced with such serious acts of committing and spreading violence, we should no longer remain at the level of moral condemnation,” it said.

The article explained that those who were cruel to animals could not be expected to treat people well. It called for legal action on the matter, saying that during the Two Sessions – China’s annual meeting of the country’s legislature – this year, a number of legislators suggested that people who committed public violence against animals be punished.

“With laws, we protect not just the animals, but also ourselves,” it said.

A hashtag that accompanied the Weibo post reporting on the cat cruelty was read over 560 million times by Friday morning.