Thousands of dead pets were found in boxes at a logistics centre in China.
The gruesome discovery of at least 5,000 small mammals stuffed into small packages was made in Luohe in Central China's Henan Province, local animal protection volunteers said.
Rabbits, guinea pigs, cats and dogs had been transported in more than 6,000 small boxes to Dongxing logistics station earlier this month.
It is thought that most of the animals died on September 22.
On that day around 20 members of animal rights group Wutuobang rushed to the station to try and save them following a tip-off.
"We rescued about 50 cats and dogs as well as 200 rabbits, but it was fewer than 5 percent of all animals there," Dan, a member of the group, told the Global Times.
"The stinking boxes cluttered the station, and lots of animals inside had died of suffocation, starvation or thirst.
Sister Hua, the founder of animal rescue group Utopia, told CBS the scene was "like a living hell".
Members of the group used an excavator to dig a large grave on some farmland for the animals.
The healthy pets have been re-homed with local families and the unhealthy ones have been sent to pet clinics for treatments.
It is thought that the animals may have been bred on farms in East China's Anhui Province.
They were then to be sent to online buyers across the country.
It is roughly 700km from the centre of Anhui Provine to the centre of Henan.
The animals were taken on three trucks from the farm to a first logistics station in Zhengzhou in Henan on September 17, before being driven to Luohe.
The animals were stored in plastic or iron cages inside the paper boxes, which had air-holes punctured into their sides.
It is illegal to send animals via the post in China under a law introduced in 1990.
According to lawyer Zhang Bo the law is often not followed and there is no penalty for people caught posting animals.
