Hundreds protest dog abuse case in rare Chongqing sit-in

Hundreds of people gathered outside a residential complex in Chongqing’s Jiangbei district after videos circulated online showing a 39-year-old man surnamed Li torturing dogs on a balcony at night.

Animal welfare volunteers found a severely injured puppy in a corridor outside Li’s unit. Local authorities transferred three puppies belonging to Li to a pet hospital and an animal shelter for treatment, while police took Li into custody and opened investigations. Police also cited administrative detention of up to 15 days in handling the case.

Videos and photographs that later disappeared from Chinese social media showed confrontations between protesters and police officers, and some demonstrators were escorted away as officers tried to break up the gathering. More than 100 people were outside the building, and some returned on June 10 despite the crackdown.

China still has no national law that specifically criminalises cruelty to companion animals. Under China’s Civil Code, pets are generally treated as personal property, leaving police with limited tools in abuse cases and giving advocates little legal ground for stronger enforcement. The push for a companion-animal protection law is at least a decade old, and Chinese campaigners and legal scholars have repeatedly called for clearer penalties for cruelty, violence and neglect toward dogs and cats.

One recent case involved Chutou, a celebrity border collie stolen in central Henan, sold to a dog-meat dealer for about 180 yuan, or about US$25, and slaughtered. Chongqing police urged people to “care for living creatures” and “together safeguard urban civility and social order,” while local officials said the matter would be handled according to law.