Police announced the detention of the 39-year-old, identified only by the surname Li, on June 10 in a statement that spread quickly online, urging residents to “care for living creatures” and to jointly safeguard public order, Bloomberg reported.
Local authorities had said a day earlier that they opened a case and sent three puppies found in the man’s home to a veterinarian.
What set the case apart, and what drove the public reaction, was the method. According to the BBCthe man advertised on the social app Douyin early this month offering to take in dogs for free, telling owners his two children adored puppies.
Hong Kong outlet HK01 reported that he and his wife had spent months building trust inside Chongqing’s pet-rescue groups, presenting themselves as an experienced, stable family so volunteers would hand over animals without payment.
The case broke open in early June when a volunteer who had given the man a white puppy returned to her holding site to find the litter’s mother beaten to death. On June 6, neighbors filmed him apparently abusing a dog on his apartment balcony.
The next day, rescuers who came to confront him found a dying puppy, known among volunteers as Dongdong, abandoned in the building’s stairwell. A veterinary examination found the animal’s teeth had been filed flat, its tail severed and its body broken in multiple places, according to local media.
HK01 reported that neighbors had seen the man abusing a dog with metal tongs in March. When volunteers offered to pay to take the animal away, he refused and showed police a vaccination record to prove ownership. Officers did not intervene, and that dog later died.
More than 100 people gathered outside the man’s building over several days, holding signs demanding punishment and a cruelty law, the South China Morning Post reported.
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