Last month, a brutal animal abuse case involving four minors occurred in Jieyang, Guangdong Province, China: a mother dog and her three puppies were burned alive with gasoline and beaten to death. The incident continues to ferment across online communities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with the topic “Chen Qiaoen’s statement was instantly deleted” reaching Weibo’s trending search on Wednesday.
On June 29, a video circulated online showing the incident, which took place in Pingpu Village, Xinheng Town, Jiedong District, Jieyang City. The footage shows several children in the village committing acts of cruelty, first beating the mother dog with sticks and then stabbing the newborn, defenseless puppies with rods, resulting in their tragic deaths.
According to reports, despite the mother dog howling in pain, the children did not stop. Instead, they escalated the abuse, dousing the already badly wounded mother dog with gasoline and burning her alive, producing harrowing scenes. The report described: “The entire sequence of violence was extremely cruel and heinous, making it hard to imagine that children were capable of such actions.”
The Beijing News quoted villagers from Pingpu Village as saying that among the four minors, some had parents who were divorced while others had parents working out of town. One villager said that the mother dog seen in the video had been raised by villagers who fed her; she was rarely driven away. “She gave birth to three pups, about half a month old.”
On June 30, the Xinheng Town government released a statement saying that the education department had immediately organized schools to strengthen student education; it had also instructed the parents of those involved to fulfill their guardianship responsibilities. All four minors (none older than 14) were sent to specialized schools for education.
Online media “Hong Kong 01” reported that the official statement did not quell the unrest. Many netizens were dissatisfied that the four minors bore no legal responsibility and questioned that the punishment was too lenient, accusing the local government of shielding the perpetrators and claiming that “there are no such specialized schools” in the locality. Many are boycotting Jieyang factories and related companies, hoping authorities will severely punish those responsible. Numerous Hong Kong netizens also voiced support, prolonging the online outcry.
According to reports, an outdoor billboard in Hong Kong displayed a campaign on Monday funded by mainland netizens, highlighting the Jieyang animal cruelty case. In both simplified Chinese and English, it read “Stop Animal Abuse. The weak also have dignity; life deserves protection.” Below that in black characters: “Please continue to pay attention to this case and promote animal protection legislation,” alongside a large photo of the dog mother and her puppies.
Taiwanese netizens are also crowdfunding an outdoor billboard in Kaohsiung to show support. On the mainland, several brands have purchased billboard space to call attention to the incident and advocate for animal protection laws.
However, “Hong Kong 01” noted that many articles about the Jieyang dog abuse case are being deleted from various social media platforms in mainland China. Du Jiang, a Chinese mainland actor concerned with stray dog rights, has spoken out multiple times since July 5 on Douyin, calling for respect for life and the establishment of animal protection-related laws, but his posts have been deleted three times.
Taiwanese actress Chen Qiaoen also posted on Weibo on Tuesday, questioning, “Where are justice, conscience, fairness, accountability, and rule of law?” Her related post was deleted soon after. The phrase “Chen Qiaoen’s statement was instantly deleted” trended on Weibo’s hot search.