In the past few months, incidents in China, such as the Yulin Dog Meat Festival and the beating of a young man caught livestreaming the sexual abuse of dog, highlighted the low regard of many Chinese for “man’s best friend.”
On Wednesday, another dog cruelty incident was reported by Mirror. The British daily wrote that a live greyhound was carried on a stick by three men at a Chinese public market. Bystanders watched as the struggling dog was lowered to the boiling cauldron, howl in pain and attempt to escape.
A lot of the people even laughed seeing the dog’s agony, although a young boy was reported horrified by what he witnessed. Two men held the cauldron’s lid until the greyhound died.
The video drew strong international backlash, according to reports. Michele Brown, an animal rights activist, said, “This animal died the worst death imaginable.” She added, “You can see raw fear in the dog’s eyes as it’s carried towards the boiling water. As they drop the dog into the water it screams for help, skin burning and blistering. It flails around so much, two strong men have to hold on to the lid.”
The incident happened in Shijiazhuang City in Hebei Province. Dogs often killed in the city are raised on industrial farms of stolen pets sold on the black market. Rita James, an animal rights activist in England, revealed that some of the greyhound slaughtered for its meat come from racing circles in Ireland, with the losing dog killed and sold as food since dog meat is considered in China a delicacy or even a cure for some ailments.