For those of you following the uproar currently surrounding a set of cat-crushing photos posted online, here’s a rundown on how a few of China’s newspapers are treating the story (note that following the links may expose you to unsavory images of animal cruelty):
In Beijing:
- The Beijing Morning Post: 1 March, ran a story entitled “High heels crush a kitten’s head.” Three images, the most gruesome being one of a heel about to strike the kitten’s eye. Text reported on forum speculation about Hangzhou, and information about the relevancy (or lack thereof) of the law. It was paired with a story about 10,000 yuan in donations for a cat whose owner burnt its ears off last week.
- The Beijing News: 2 March, ran a story entitled “Images of a woman torturing a kitten anger netizens.” Four pictures, the most gruesome the same as BMP‘s. Text (by a Southern Metropolis Daily correspondent) included excerpts from forum posts and a general summary of the situation.
In Shanghai:
- Xinming Evening News: Ran an article entitled “Xinmin Evening News joins with bloggers to find the woman who tortured the kitten,” as well as another article in its real estate supplement that cited statistics linking cruelty to pets with domestic violence and child abuse.
- Shanghai Morning Post: Ran an article entitled “Behind the curtain of the woman torturing the kitten affair,” which added further investigation into the shady world of animal torturing organizations.
And the wanted poster above, which calls for the woman to be beaten in the street or sent to a slaughterhouse, comes from a Southern Metropolis Daily article on the online response to the pictures.
Other papers across the country picked up the Beijing Morning Post article, and it appears that most felt it appropriate to print the images carried in that article, although the final few bloody images are (thankfully) still too much for the print media.
UPDATE: Comments are closed on this post to prevent people with no knowledge of China or of the consequences of this case from leaving racist comments.