If you keep daily tabs on China-related news, you’re sure to find some harrowing stories about the suffering of animals one way or another. We recently saw the whipping of monkeys occurring in a deranged street performance, but this time it’s sweet little squirrels who are getting the rap. Around 16:00 on March 5, Yao Xiaojie, a boat worker at Hangzhou’s West Lake docked her boat at a spot facing a camphor tree. As she got off her boat, Yao spotted a middle-aged man grabbing a squirrel from the tree who was peacefully eating peanuts, and subsequently stomping on the poor beast after it fell to the ground. The squirrel tried to struggle free and climb up the tree, though the damage inflicted was already too much, as it slipped back down again and eventually curled up and died. That day, Yao Xiaojie wrote a post about her encounter on Weibo, which sparked a heated discussion. By 9:30 on March 6, the post had already been re-blogged 2,778 times and had received 627 comments, with users fervently condemning the aforementioned squirrel slayer.    

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Keywords: squirrel killing Hangzhou squirrel stamping Hangzhou