A peculiar travel gadget is going viral in China as pet owners put their animals at risk by placing them in bags and hanging them outside the car while driving. A netizen has revealed the implications of this worrying trend following Chinese New Year tourism. A blogger named Wu Jiayou said he found 62 pet corpses along a 300-kilometer stretch of highway.
He expressed concern over the dead bodies strewn across the road and shared a video of the scene on February 25, Yangcheng Evening News reported. Dead bodies of pet animals were found in the stretch between Leshan in Sichuan province and Chongqing in southwest China.
According to the blogger, almost eight animals were dogs and the rest were cats.
“They all looked like pets because they wore clothes and had well-groomed hair. I think they died in accidents during transportation due to lack of care and protection by their owners,” Yangcheng Evening News quoted Wu Jiayou as saying. The disturbing visuals had a profound impact on the blogger, who felt the pain because he was also a pet owner. He had a dog named Border Collie.
Wu Jiayou pointed out the dangers and risks of this viral trend, saying, “Many pet owners simply follow the recent trend of not putting their pets in vehicles, but hanging them outside.”
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, a large number of people in China travel home and travel long distances with their pets, which is inconvenient for them. Many pet owners use cages or ventilated boxes to house their animals, while some ignore safety procedures when transporting pets while traveling. Despite the risk associated with hanging pets outside the trunk, some simply use woven bags or plastic bags to avoid animal suffering in the car.
Wu said, “I didn’t expect my video to go viral. I didn’t know so many people understood the lives of pets,” warning pet owners against this dangerous trend. Advocating for more humane practices when transporting pets while travelling, he added: “I would like to urge all pet owners to raise their ‘fur babies’ in a civilized manner and never abandon them.”
Experts warn of the dangers and risks associated with this trend
According to Dr. Li of Beijing Quanxinquanyi Animal Hospital, pets’ reactions to a long-distance road trip vary. Li said, “Animals that don’t sit in cars frequently will develop stress reactions such as car sickness, nervousness, fear and defecation.”
He added: “Pets are likely to struggle and jump out of their containers out of fear or anxiety. Cats and dogs that are suspended outside the shoe face a high possibility of death or injury in a rear-end accident.”
