Six animal lovers were sentenced to between four and six months in prison with four- to six- month reprieves for assaulting two people who they mistook for animal abusers and forcing them to eat cat feces, the People's Court Daily reported on Wednesday.

The six beat two people, surnamed Liu and Yin, cut their hair off and forced them to eat feces on July 30.

According to a forensic analysis, the pair suffered bruising on their faces, limbs and backs.

According to the report, the six people were all well-educated animal lovers, who met each other through a Wechat group named "Animal lovers."

They became furious after seeing videos of people tormenting cats and dogs in July 2015. Based on rumors, they decided to pin the blame on Liu and Yin. The six soon plotted revenge in their chat group.

One of the six people, surnamed Zeng, tricked Liu and Yin into meeting him in a remote forest, saying that he wanted to adopt a dog. Zeng confessed that he told the other five that they might have targeted the wrong people when he saw Liu and Yin. He said that even though the victims did not look like the people in the video, they decided that they might be the "partners" of the animal abusers. The six did not give up their original plan, and attacked them anyway.

All six pleaded guilty to affray at the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court. According to Ding Xiaoqing, the judge in this case, animal protection is a meaningful project that requires devotion and passion for animals, but one cannot resort to extreme methods to achieve this goal, even in the name of protecting animals. One should love animals, and love other people too, Ding added.