Killing animals for amusement must end

On Wednesday evening, Shandong University of Technology expelled a student who brutally killed stray cats and shared disturbing videos of his acts online.

The videos are no longer available, but according to a report in Beijing News, the cats were flogged, burned alive or given electric shocks. A cropped video clip in the report showed something red, possibly the flesh of a tortured cat. Some reports suggested he might have been selling the videos online.

The university launched a joint investigation with the police after someone reported the case on social media on April 8. The authorities zeroed in on the student, who has since received psychological counseling. It is not clear if he will be punished, as there is no law prohibiting killing of animals that are not on the protected list; but he could land in trouble for sharing videos of the brutal killings online.

This is not an isolated case: On April 3, a car owner was shown starting a car and running over two dogs at a restaurant parking lot in Shanghai; similar cases have been reported from Qingdao too. In all the cases the accused were not uneducated; in fact, most of them were highly educated.

Two measures are needed to end such cruelty. Legislators could consider introducing regulation to extend the protection of animals to include other species, not just rare ones. Animals should not be killed for the sake of "amusement". Second, respect for life should be included as a lesson. A human heart filled with compassion toward all living things will not indulge in such cruel acts, and educating people about it might be the best way to achieve that.