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Debate has erupted in China over the ethics of selling cats, dogs and other small animals through vending machines.
A video from Beijing of a vending machine displaying cats in tiny compartments has sparked outrage on social media. Users note that the animals in the footage look healthy, but they have previously seen similar machines where pets were kept in terrible conditions, were sick or even dead.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that vending machines have been used to sell animals in China. In 2020, a slot machine was installed in Shanghai, where live cats, dogs and chinchillas were given out as prizes. And a year earlier, a video with another machine went viral online, where puppies could be “caught” as plush toys.
Animal rights activists are calling on the Chinese authorities to ban this practice, regarding it as cruelty to animals. They emphasize that keeping animals in cramped vending machines harms them both physically and psychologically, not to mention that this approach to sales does not promote informed and responsible pet purchasing. This is reported by daily.afisha.ru with reference to Oddity Central.