NEWS AND COMMENT-EASTERN SUZHOU, CHINA: These are allegations. A Chinese vigilante group have punished a man who videoed himself abusing, torturing and killing cats. This is an example of the citizens of an area taking action themselves to rectify what they regard as a wrong. It is a form of direct action against an alleged abuser of domestic cats. Strictly speaking both the alleged abuser and the vigilante group have committed crimes. However, there will be a lot of people who support the vigilantes because they can see something happening.
Sometimes people feel impotent in tackling animal abuse. I must say it is nice to see a group of people in China being concerned enough about animal abuse to take direct action. It may indicate a ground swell of movement towards better animal welfare in that country where there are in effect no animal welfare laws. Yes, it is shocking to understand that China, the country with the second largest economy in the world after America, does not see fit to enact proper animal welfare laws to protect the animals in their country.
I suspect that one reason why they can’t create animal welfare laws is because a lot of activities would fall foul of the laws. They’d be uproar.
Lee
It is alleged that Mr Lee was abusing cats by adopting them and then torturing and sometimes killing them. It is not uncommon for animal abusers to video themselves and then tell the world by uploading the videos to the Internet. I have not seen them and I don’t want to see them. I probably couldn’t find them if I tried. Perhaps he was copying Luka Magnotta’s killing of two kittens.
But in uploading them to the Internet he exposed himself to being caught. Several local media outlets picked up on the videos which meant that they were more widely available. Global Times and Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Mr Lee who apparently is an office worker.
He was identified by a person overseas who had seen the videos or one of them. He alerted a dozen or so cat lovers in China saying that Lee was planning to adopt a kitten at a commercial Plaza according to The Straits Times.
The vigilante group formed up and six individuals surrounded Lee at the Plaza on February 25. They insulted him at that location and then took into a separate place where he was allegedly kicked and made to slap himself and confess to his actions.
They then smeared his face with faeces and forced him to eat the faeces. I think the picture on this page on the left-hand side shows some faeces inside his mouth. They made a video of their actions and in it he can be heard confessing to killing five cats while being held by two individuals.
It is alleged that Lee was bruised and bleeding after the assault, which lasted several hours during the night.
People have speculated that the vigilante group are part of the Suzhou Small Animal Protection Volunteers Association. This is, from my point of view, an excellent animal rescue association. They have rescued cats and dogs from the backs of lorries transporting the animals to the cat and dog meat markets in the south.
Although the rescue organisation said on its Weibo page that it was not involved and would have done something so extreme.
Comment
I don’t like people breaking the law but I do like it when an alleged animal abuser is confronted directly. It takes courage to do it. The difficulty here is ensuring that they have the right person. On that basis I would support the action. I hope that Mr Lee has been arrested by the police force in the area in question. The chances of that happening are almost zero which supports the reason why this has happened in the first place. The police are disinterested.
they should have killed him
Oh yeah! I’ve seen video where the Chinese have beaten people near to death for killing pets. When they catch dog and cat nappers who ride motorcycles they burn their bikes and chase them out of town. They have even killed animal abusers. China is changing, they love their pets just as much as we do.