Man beats dog in street as part of coercion scam

A man caught on video mercilessly beating a dog in the street is accused of doing so to extort money from local animal lovers who just want him to stop.

The clip from Monday shows the man beating a yellow-haired dog with a stick on the side of a road in North China’s Jilin, Jilin Province.

The dog wails in pain as the shirtless man repeatedly hits it while holding its leg.

When approached by local activists, the man brushes off any accusations of abuse.

“I can kill this dog if I want. It’s not worth a lot anyway,” the man is heard saying.

It appears in the video that the group had acquired the dog from him.

A local activist surnamed Niu said he has done it before.

“He’s an alcoholic. He enjoys abusing dogs when he’s drunk and waits for animal activists to offer him money,” said Niu.

She claimed to have previously paid him 3,500 yuan ($500) to stop beating a dog.

“I know paying only encourages him to keep doing it. But I don’t have any other way,” said Niu. “Otherwise, I have to watch the dog getting beaten and hear it wailing,” she added.

Currently there is no law in China that forbids the mistreatment of animals, especially when clear ownership of the animal cannot be established.