Dec 8, 2007
Chinese man beats dog to death, ignoring onlookers’ pleas
This story is thoroughly disgusting, so be warned.
On youku’s front page today is a video entitled: “????????????” or “Wenzhou University Security [guard] beats a dog to death in front of everybody.”
And though I wish it wasn’t the case, the video shows exactly that. Click here to see the video, though as I said, it’s pretty disgusting.
If there’s any silver lining to situations like this, it’s that new media like youku is giving citizen journalists a chance to humiliate jackasses like this on a public stage. And hopefully that will discourage all the young kids out there from being jackasses too.
I live in an apartment building where there are about 20 dogs. Oddly enough, 7 of them are huskies. I’m convinced that some of the Chinese men here bought them for the face/status they bring. I just wish these particular guys in my building would not kick and yell at their dogs so much.
I’m not saying it’s a Chinese thing. But I can safely say I’ve seen more people kicking dogs in the last six months here in China than I’ve seen in my previous 29 years put together.
Draw whatever conclusion you want from that.
Maybe I’ll just bring my camera next time I go walk my dog.
Update: Virtual China has also done a short post on this.
Update 2: Shanghaiist reported that this video had been taken down by youku. But it seems that the video is back up and running right now. It looks as though youku may be employing the same tactic as Tudou when dealing with controversial videos. Gary Wang informed me a while back that a tactic that Tudou uses in this situation is to take the video down temporarily,so that itwill disrupt the momentum. He said “As long as the video doesn’t cause us to get shut down, we’re ok with that.” It looks as though Victor Koo might be of the same mind. And from a censorship point of view, I have to say that it’s pretty admirable.
Update 3: Some fairly ballsy dudes have took it upon themselves to do a little after-the-fact video. They even go to the security guard’s office and start asking questions while taping:
The truly sad thing about this, is the fact that there are absolutely no laws about protecting animals here in China. A person could take a puppy and beat it to death at Tiananmen, or the subway, or any other large public gathering, and would not be punished? They might be arrested for disturbing the peace, or something like that, but so long as the animal killed isn’t an endangered species, there are no legal repurcussions for that kind of cruelty. Atleast I THINK that’s what the law is, perhaps Chinalawblog could correct me?
I think it’s best not to speculate.
But yes, the track record is less than stellar, especially given the dog-round-up last year, when unofficial cops in certain cities were beating stray dogs with sticks– all in an effort to crack down on rabies.
The story has been going on for a bit now. First I’ve seen the video though. There may be no laws, but people know who the guard is, including the University & the city. If he hasn’t been fired, the bad press alone will take care of his employment opportunities for awhile.