ANIMAL WELFARE, WORLD

Chine : un chien célèbre vendu puis mangé

Publié par Correspondant en Europe sur

08.06.2026 A celebrity family dog with more than 1.5 million followers was allegedly snatched from his home farm in China, then sold for just $26 to a restaurant, where he was slaughtered and eaten the same day.

The horrific ordeal has left his devastated owner, Chinese travel influencer Guo, seeking justice for his 8-year-old Border Collie named Chutou, who attracted the huge following on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, according to the South China Morning Post.

Guo left his beloved companion with his parents while traveling when a couple – a man and a woman on an electric scooter – were caught on surveillance footage snatching the animal from the Shanqui farm on May 11.

As soon as Guo returned from his trip, he tracked down the suspects in a neighboring village, where they reportedly claimed they thought the pup was a stray, and confimred selling him to a dog trader for 180 yuan ($26.50).

“The dog is dead, stop making a fuss. I did not break the law,” one of the alleged thieves callously told the rattled caretaker during the exchange, according to the outlet.

Chutou — whose owner said was actually worth at least $10,000 — had already been resold to a restaurant where he was slaughtered and eaten.

Guo later confronted the restaurant butcher who chopped Chutou, hoping to recover remains or fur – but was told “the hair was thrown in the rubbish long ago.”

The heartbroken dog owner is now seeking criminal charges against the alleged thieves and compensation for the loss of the famous dog.

However his chances to find justice are slim: there is no nationwide ban on dog meat in China.
The country also has no companion animal protected law, with pets at best treated as property.

The dog meat is rooted in food shortages problems, which have been not completely resolved. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong banned raising dogs as a “bourgeois pastime” and during the Great Famine, peasants would eat their meat, just like any animal they could lay their hands on.

It was during the 90’s that dogs started to be seen in the cities. As said, nowadays there are less and less people willing to eat dog meat in China, and the only “big event” that promotes its consumption is the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, created in 2010.

The Yulin Dog Meat Festival is an annual, privately organized commercial event held in Yulin, Guangxi, China. Spanning 10 days beginning on the summer solstice – June 21, it features the slaughter and consumption of dogs and cats accompanied by lychees and liquor drinking.

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