At least 5,000 pets were found dead at a logistics facility in Central China.
The animals were found in cardboard or metal shipping boxes at the Dongxing Logistics station in Luohe city, in China’s Henan province.
Among them were rabbits, cats, dogs and guinea pigs, who had been left without food and water for roughly a week.
The deaths were most likely the result of a miscommunication in the supply chain of China’s mass-breeding industry.
At least 5,000 pets were found dead at a logistics facility in Central China
The animals were found in cardboard or metal shipping boxes at the Dongxing Logistics station in Luohe city, in China’s Henan province
Only a couple hundred of the animals were found alive.
Sister Hua, the founder of animal rescue group Utopia, described the scene as a ‘living hell’.
‘The station was cluttered with express boxes with thousands of animals that had already died, and the entire place reeks of rotting bodies,’ she told CBS News.
‘It was obvious they died of suffocation, dehydration and starvation.’
She alongside 20 other volunteers rescued 200 rabbits and 50 dogs and cats from the scene, with those in critical condition taken to veterinary clinics.
Sister Hua, the founder of animal rescue group Utopia, described the scene as a ‘living hell’
According to Hua, ‘miscommunication inside the shipping company and the inconsistency of the implementation of shipping regulations directly led to the tragedy.’
Chinese law bans the shipping of live animals in normal packaging and Hua believes the animals could have been abandoned at the depot for days after a logistics company may have refused to sign off on the shipment.
She urged members of the public to adopt animals to avoid incidents like these, and called on the Chinese government to more strictly enforce laws surrounding the shipment of such animals.
