A man in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong has been detained after he allegedly threatened to torture adopted cats to blackmail their former owners for nude photos and money.

A woman, surnamed Jiang, went online early this month to put a one-month-old stray cat up for adoption, and accepted an offer by a man who claimed to have experience taking care of kittens, according to a report by Chinese news outlet _[Thecover.cn](http://thecover.cn/)_.

But after she sent the cat to the man, on Sept. 5, the man messaged her threatening to kill the cat unless she provided nude photos with her face showing, the report said. After she refused, the man asked for 300 Chinese yuan ($47) and demanded Jiang send over the two adult cats she was keeping.

Cases of animal abuse have prompted public outrage in China, where pet ownership is on the rise. The country does not have a national law on animal cruelty. Abusers often go unpunished, although some accused of cruelty have been dismissed by their schools or employers.

Past [media reports](https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4497404028977182?from=old_pc_videoshow) have also exposed how abusers collected cats by posing as adopters online. Some of the abusers then shared or sold videos of cat torture in online chatrooms.

A Shiba Inu was snatched away on the streets of a southern Chinese village. Two days later, the owner found the animal in the worst possible place: an illegal dog meat stall. Despite growing resentment in urban China toward the consumption of dogs, the illegal sale of dogs, including pets stolen from their homes, continues in some parts of China. In the latest incident, a woman’s painful search for her stolen Shiba Inu has sparked outrage on social media and calls for a tougher crackdown on the trade.  The woman, Antonia Wang, told VICE World News that her dog was stolen by a motorcyclist at about 6 a.m. on July 26, when her father unleashed the dog briefly to let it relieve itself. Wang, 24, got the male dog four years ago when it was a puppy, and named it Chuqi, after her own birthday. (The word refers to the seventh day in a lunar month.) Wang’s father drove after the man, but the dashing motorcycle soon disappeared into the alleyways. She said location data sent from a tracker worn by the dog showed the device was discarded in a river.  Wang reported the case to the police. With the help of surveillance footage and tips from local residents, she followed the route of the motorcycle and discovered a dog meat stall at a village about 30 kilometers from her home in the southern province of Guangdong.  The next morning, Wang and her friend found several dogs being sold at the stall. Someone had doused them with boiling water and cut them into pieces, she said. Without the fur, these dogs were hardly recognizable, but she found Chuqi’s chip in the remains—it was indeed her Shiba dog.  <div class="article__media"><picture class="article__image"><source media="(max-width: 25em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=400:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=600:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 40.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=650:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=975:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 53.125em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=850:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=1275:* 2x"><source media="(max-width: 65.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=1050:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=1575:* 2x"><source media="(min-width: 65.625em)" srcset="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=1050:*, https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg?resize=1575:* 2x"><img src="https://video-images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1628137950214-img5973.jpeg" alt="china stolen dog"></picture><div class="article__image-caption">THE FOUR-YEAR-OLD DOG CHUQI HAS BEEN STOLEN AND THEN KILLED BY DOG MEAT TRADERS. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANTONIA WANG</div></div> The seller, an older woman, claimed she had paid about 230 Chinese yuan ($36) to get the dog from suppliers, Wang said.  “I completely lost myself,” Wang wrote in a post on the microblogging site Weibo. “My hands were shaking. Anger, frustration, and helplessness filled up my brain… I only began crying out loud after I returned to my car and closed the door.”  The dog meat seller denied knowing the sources of the dogs, and police were still looking for the thieves, Wang said. Officers disinfected Chuqi’s remains and helped bury them under a tree near her home.  An officer at the Sanzao police station in Guangdong, where Wang reported the case, said they could not provide details to the press.  Dog meat consumption exists in a legal grey area in most Chinese cities—it has not been explicitly banned, but authorities also do not approve of slaughtering and selling dogs as they do for other livestock animals.  With rising pet ownership among the Chinese middle class, more people have called for a nationwide ban on dog meat consumption that animal rights activists say is leading to theft and abuse of pet dogs.  Last month, police in the central city of Wuhan <a href="https://www.sohu.com/a/480233711_162758" target="_blank">detained a father and a son</a> for killing more than 100 dogs with poisonous darts in less than two months and selling them as dog meat. Earlier this year, police in the southwestern city of Chongqing also <a href="https://www.cqcb.com/hot/2021-05-27/4169067_pc.html" target="_blank">detained seven men</a> for hunting pet dogs with darts.  Wang’s post on Weibo was shared more than 25,000 times in five days and sparked a wave of shock and anger. In their comments, many people offered condolences to Wang, and some said they could not bear reading the entire post.   Wang wrote that her experience was a warning to other dog owners, so they could protect their dogs against the meat traders. She is offering 3,000 Chinese yuan ($460) in reward for tips about who took her pet.  She said residents often complained about losing their dogs to what they believe to be organized dog thieves, but the cases are treated only as minor property thefts.  “These beasts not only stole a dog, but also the owner’s time, emotional investment, energy, companion and family love,” she wrote. “These cannot be measured with money.”

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Heartbroken Woman Finds Remains of Her Missing Dog at Meat Stall

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Jiang reported her case to police and shared her experience in an animal rescue chat group, where several men said they were victimized by the same man who took Jiang&#x2019;s cat.

It&#x2019;s not unclear if the men were also asked to provide their nudes, but one said he received videos showing his cat being tortured after he refused to provide the $155 as requested by the man.

The man was taken away by police on Sept. 7 on suspicion of extortion, Jiang said. Police in the southern city of Dongguan this week confirmed the man had been detained, _Thecover.cn_ reported.

Jiang said police told her the next day that several cats the man obtained in the name of adoption, including the stray she provided, were found dead. Police also found &#x201c;obscene&#x201d; photos and videos in the man&#x2019;s smartphone, according to Jiang.

Man Adopts Cats and Threatens Torture to Blackmail Their Former Owners

Heartbroken Woman Finds Remains of Her Missing Dog at Meat Stall

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