A squirrel being was tied up to a beer bottle and whipped by a farmer for stealing his crops. Apparently, the squirrel had been caught eating corn on the man’s farm and was being punished for that. The animal can be seen struggling to break free and twitching in pain.
Web users and animal rights group have slammed the man’s act for abusing such a defenceless animal.
The three-minute-long footage has been circulating on Chinese social media platforms since it was first uploaded on May 31.The incident was reported to be in Guizhou Province, according to a local media account on Weibo. The red-bellied animal, also known as Pallas’s Squirrel, mainly feeds on leaves, seeds and fruits. It was tied onto a green glass bottle with strings as the man beat it with a twig continuously.
‘Why are you stealing from me? Go steal my cousin’s,’ the man said in local dialect. ‘We don’t have enough corn for ourselves. Now you want some too?’ He added. The tree squirrel twitched its body and opened its claws as the man hit its stomach. It’s unclear if the squirrel survived at the end.