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Video: German Shepherd cries as the owner forces it to eat chilies

A heart-wrenching video has surfaced on social media that captures cries of a German Shepherd as its owner forces it to eat chilies. Apparently, the Chinese-owner live-streamed the video where his German Shepherd is seen obediently chomping chilies as tears swim in the poor creature’s eyes.

German Shepherd cries as it is forced to eat chilies

The outrageous trend surfaced after China’s crackdown on “chibo” or “mukbang” vloggers. Such vloggers bagged dollars through sharing videos of them eating large quantities of food on social media. After these videos became popular on social media, President Xi launched an “Operation Empty Plate”, the aim of this campaign was to reduce food wastage in china. This led to anger among Chinese social media users who thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘Chibo’ videos, or Mukbang, a popular online phenomenon originated in South Korea. The audacity and the privilege these people hold to protest against the prevention of food wastage is appalling.

“You think those dogs will not be in heaven! I tell you they will be there long before any of us.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

While the government promptly blocked all content from popular live-streaming sites such as Douyin, a Chinese version of TikTok, pet owners in China have taken advantage and started to do it on their dogs. The man in the video can be heard saying, “Alright, let’s give our handsome Shuaishuai a taste of Chongqing. This is a dish of chili chicken.” As the video progresses, the cries of German Shepherd become more prominent.

It is unclear how the anger towards blocking the content of ‘mukbang’ vloggers transitioned into a brutal violation of basic decency. The video caused an outrage on social media, people have demanded a ban on all such videos so that they do not motivate other pet owners to do the same.  Dog owners have also demanded a ban on filming pets to gain likes and social media attention.

Such videos illustrating the absence of human decency have been circulating on social media. The Chinese owner wrote on the post: ‘He is enjoying it very much,’ referring to his pet, the German shepherd.  Although it is clearly visible that the dog does not want to eat chilies and is being forced to do so. Another video posted online shows two dogs being forced to eat 38 different kinds of human snacks and drinks altogether as a ‘food challenge’. Another sees a pet owner forcing popping candy down a husky’s throat while gripping the pet’s mouth to keep it closed.

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Reports indicate that such content has attracted hundreds of thousands of likes on Chinese video-sharing platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, despite most animals featured in this type of videos do not appear as ‘happy’ as their owners claim. This shows the collective moral conscience of the Chinese people. Imagine possessing the privilege to keep a pet, a being that is voiceless and entirely depends on you and then inflicting such pain on that being.

While many countries have progressed to the extent of enacting laws that protect animals, China is still far behind. According to most people, China is considered progressive in terms of technological advancements. However, such content shows the sheer lack of empathy or basic human decency its people possess. First, they protest against the campaign aimed at the prevention of food wastage. Then they transition their anger into activities that inflict pain on innocent voiceless beings.

About the author

Saman Iqbal

Saman is a law student. She enjoys writing about tech, politics and the world in general. She's an avid reader and writes fictional prose in her free time.







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