Man accused of boiling cats alive attacked by vigilantes and forced to eat poo

Monday, April 8, 2024 – Activists are fighting back against an animal torture group who have been sharing videos online.

In one video published by animal-loving vigilantes, a man identified simply as Li was attacked at a shopping mall in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou.

Li had allegedly bragged on social media that he had already killed a number of cats and was on his way to adopt four more. But instead of meeting someone with some kittens, as he expected, he was ambushed by a group of cat lovers who forced him to confess his misdeeds on camera. They then roughed him up and smeared human excrement all over his face.

The group had live-streamed the attack on the man.

The Rotten Mango podcast host Stephanie Soo said: “Everyone knew that he got exactly what he deserved. This man was part of an animal snuff film gang that would catch, torture and kill kittens for views on Telegram.

“This guy was particularly known for boiling cats alive. He came to adopt a kitten for the sole purpose of wanting to kill it as slowly and as painfully as possible.”

After the attack, police said they planned to arrest the vigilantes, as well as calling Li in for questioning.

China does have some laws safeguarding the welfare of animals used in research labs, and on farms, but the treatment of pets is more of a grey area. Animal cruelty is not specifically defined in any existing laws and there’s still a thriving trade in dog and cat meat.

After a number of cats had been found dead or dying in locations around Shanghai Tech University, a group of students tried to identify the killer. They were faced with a horrifying gesture of defiance.

They got access to the CCTV cameras in the areas where the cats’ bodies had been found in the hope of working out who had been in those places recently.

Stephanie explained: “They did not just find someone acting suspicious, they found someone staring straight into the camera with a cat in their hands.”

The woman, a female student with long black hair and carrying a drawstring backpack set the bag down in front of the camera and then, apparently aware that the students would be watching, she took an already-injured stray kitten out of her bag.

Stephanie said the cat, whom the students later named Princess, was already dazed and helpless, but the woman showed no mercy.

She explained: “She just starts strangling Princess with both hands right in front of the CCTV camera. Princess tries to struggle but she's already in a weak state, she can't fight back hard enough the strangulation went on until Princess's body went limp.”

The killer does not appear to ever have been brought to justice.

In another horrific case, a member of the animal torture ring uploaded a video showing a tiny cat being torn apart in a kitchen blender. The vile footage spread like wildfire across Twitter and Reddit.

A number of petitions are circulating, in the hope of pressuring the Chinese government into drafting legislation to protect domestic cats and dogs. As yet, though, the animals’ only defence is the questionable acts of animal rights vigilantes.