Everything starts with education.
A short video that recently went viral on X (formerly Twitter) showed a six-year-old girl “playing” with a rabbit at “Rabbit Park”—an interactive attraction within a large shopping mall in Suining City, Sichuan Province, China—by swinging the animal around like a windmill. One comment noted, “To think that China’s future generation is already this rotten…” It really goes to show that education is everything.
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The Reason Why There Is No Law Against Animal Cruelty in China
China lacks a nationwide law that prohibits or penalizes animal cruelty itself. Existing laws primarily cover rare wildlife; in reality, there are no clear legal definitions or penalties regarding the abuse of familiar animals, such as pets. A draft for a comprehensive animal protection law—which included provisions banning the consumption of dogs and cats and criminalizing animal abuse—was actually prepared by a team of experts as early as 2009. Yet, more than 17 years later, it has still not been formally adopted by the National People’s Congress.
This legislative gap drew renewed attention following an incident in June 2026 in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province. Boys under the age of 14 killed a stray mother dog and her puppies, filming the act and spreading the footage online; however, because none of the perpetrators had reached the age of criminal responsibility, they faced no criminal prosecution and were merely placed in correctional facilities. This outcome sparked strong criticism both domestically and internationally, fueling campaigns for the enactment of animal protection laws in cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York. Such delays in establishing a legal framework lie behind the repeated circulation of videos depicting the mistreatment of animals.
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