Man fined $33k because he fed a stray cat.

We have been feeding stray cats and dogs in China for more than 3 years now. It can be expensive buying food to feed the many beautiful animals but not as expensive as feeding a stray cat ended up being for a Chinese man in the city of Shanghai. This story is a crazy one that got a lot of people here in China talking and debating about what happened.

A man named Xiao was working at a sports centre teaching badminton and looking after the courts. While working here he became friendly with a number of stray cats who often wandered onto the courts and he began to feed them. In most Chinese city communities and office areas, there are at least a few stray cats and sometimes many more. In my community a group of ladies have a feeding route and locations around the community to place food. The cat’s know the routine and will be there waiting for them. It’s organised and the cats are well fed.

One day a man playing badminton on a court where Xiao worked, tripped over a cat. This sounds a little crazy as cats have fast reactions, so fast in fact that they can sometimes avoid a fast moving snake that catches them off guard. However accidents do happen and in this case the man who fell, ended up in hospital and with a minor disability. The story doesn’t say what his disability was, only that it was the most minor disability in the classifications used in China.

The man went to court to seek compensation for his injury. During the trial the court heard from several witnesses that confirmed Xiao was feeding and caring for these cats. Under Chinese law, because he was feeding the cat that the badminton player tripped over, he was responsible for the injury and would have to pay compensation of more than $33,000. This seems pretty crazy to me, the cat isn’t registered to any owner, doesn’t live indoors and this man simply put down food to stop the cat starving and to do a good deed.

I can understand the man who tripped over the cat feeling hard done-by, perhaps not expecting a cat to wander in front of him at a sports club. So maybe you can understand his point of view, but it seems a little harsh that someone showing compassion to the cat, feeding them daily, ended up with a fine for doing so. I wonder whether there is more to this story than meets the eye.

There is a clear divide here between the thoughts of animal owners and people who dislike, fear or don’t understand animals. Pet owners mostly seem to be on Xiao’s side, agreeing that’s he’s doing a good deed and that the cat would starve if he didn’t. Cat’s can’t go more than one or two weeks without food.

Sadly, many people have this idea that stay animals are an inconvenience. They would rather see them killed than find a way to rescue or reduce numbers through trap Neuter and release programs. People have also come to believe that strays are dangerous, even though in our experience this is far from true.

In our experience, feeding stray animals is difficult enough, we can’t afford to re-home most of them and they face many dangers. Animal based laws in China seem to be improving, but there are many grey areas and change takes time. Even though this kind of event is rare and unusual it could lead to less people helping out stray animals if they feel that they could end up in trouble for their kind action.

Have you come across any unusual stories about strays animals or accidents with animals involved? Send us an email and let us know.