A man from North China's Shanxi Province has triggered a furious backlash on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo after luring a pregnant stray cat into a cage and scalding it with boiling hot water, because it had "stolen his sausage," The Paper reported on Tuesday. Screenshot of Fengmian Video on Sina Weibo.

A man from North China's Shanxi Province has triggered a furious backlash on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo after luring a pregnant stray cat into a cage and scalding it with boiling hot water, because it had "stolen his sausage," The Paper reported on Tuesday. 

The cat was later found to be severely injured with all its hair gone and lying in a pool of blood. Passers-by sent it to an animal hospital and saved its life, but failed to save the four kittens inside its belly. 

Police are investigating the case, and sources revealed that the man has been fired by the State Grid Corporation, where he was employed as a temporary worker. 

When doctors examined the cat's injury after it was sent to the hospital, they found the stray cat, fighting for its life, was only a week away from giving birth. However, due to the traumatic incident, all four of its kittens died. 

"How can anyone be so brutal to an innocent life? If he could abuse a cat, he would also harm or even kill a person in the future," a furious netizen wrote on Weibo.

Global Times