Photograph: AP
Six Chinese activists have gone on trial for allegedly abducting a group of suspected animal torturers and force-feeding them cat excrement.
The vigilante campaigners went on trial earlier this week in Shanghai accused of luring their two victims – who they suspected were behind a series of gruesome online videos showing the torture or cats and dogs – into a forest.
Once there, the six activists reportedly set upon their victims, two men named only as Liu and Yi.
One vigilante, a woman named only as Xu, allegedly hurled a specially blended cocktail of cat litter and cat excrement onto one of the men.
Another attacker, called Cao, used scissors to shear off a victim’s hair.
“Both Liu and Yi suffered bruises all over the body,” the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported.
Midway through the assault, one of the assailants reportedly twigged that Liu and Yi were not, in fact, animal torturers, according to the Global Times newspaper.
Yet the rest of the gang was undeterred. As a coda to their foul-smelling ambush, they stuffed both victims’ mouths with animal faeces.
The activists stand accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a crime that carries a potential jail sentence of up to five years.
However, the Shanghai Daily said the victims had already “forgiven” four of their attackers after receiving cash compensation payments.
Xu, the cat litter thrower, told the court she regretted her crime.
“I feel guilty about the attack,” she said. “As an animal rights activist, I should protect not only animals, but also human beings.”
A verdict is expected next week.
A series of brutal videos showing the mistreatment of cats and dogs have surfaced on the Chinese internet in recent years, horrifying campaigners and animal lovers.
In several cases online vigilantes have responded by launching so-called “human flesh searches”, a kind of internet witch hunt designed to identify - and punish - those responsible.
One such pursuit was launched in 2011 in the wake of a viral video that appeared to show a woman in Beijing drowning a cat in a puddle.
Two years earlier, there was a similar online campaign after a university student in Hebei province was seen blowing up a cat.
