Seventy percent of its skin was seriously burned, and its heart had stopped beating, according to the doctor who treated the cat at a local animal hospital, CCTV News reported on Wednesday.  Screenshot of Fengmian Video on Sina Weibo.

A man from Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province sparked a furious backlash on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo after killing a pregnant stray cat with boiling water because it had "stolen his sausage." All four of its unborn kittens also died, media reported.  

Seventy percent of its skin was seriously burned, and its heart had stopped beating, according to the doctor who treated the cat at a local animal hospital, CCTV News reported on Wednesday. 

The man was spotted to have locked a stray cat in a cage and poured boiling hot water on it, because it had "stolen his sausage," The Paper reported on Tuesday. It was later found to be severely injured with all its hair gone and lying in a pool of blood. 

Passers-by sent the cat to an animal hospital immediately for emergency treatment. When the doctors examined its injury, 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. 

Police are currently 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. 

He was fined 5,000 yuan ($751) by local authorities as the medical fee for the cat. 

"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