Man throws pet dog from 18th floor

A dog has been treated for severe injuries sustained after it was thrown from an 18th floor window by its owner Monday, angering many Web users who have renewed calls for improvements to animal welfare in China.

Witnesses told the Global Times that they found a Bichon Frise dog lying on a car covered with blood at a residential complex near Baiziwan Lu, Chaoyang district, on Monday evening.

"The owner, who lives on the 18th floor, admitted he dropped his dog from his apartment because it ran into the bathroom when he was bathing; such cruel behavior. It should be an offence," said a woman surnamed Sun, who lives on the building's first floor.

The falling dog smashed the car's windscreen.

Police confirmed the dog owner was taken to the police station Monday, but did not clarify if he had been arrested.

"He is still at our police station now. This person is sane, and poses no threat to other residents' safety," said a police officer, who refused to give his name.

According to Sun, who runs a pet shop and knows most dog owners at the compound, the suspect is a 40-year-old man who never walked his dog outside.

"He looks like an unsociable person. He rarely says hello to the neighbors and even didn't say thank-you when I did a favor for him one time," Sun said.

Nie Zhenzhe, who treated the dog at the nearby Doctors Beck & Stone Pet Health Care Center, said the dog is not out of danger, but is in stable condition.

"Besides serious external injuries, it has a fracture on its right foreleg and pulmonary hemorrhage. We also suspect it has an intracranial hemorrhage, which is very hard to treat with current technologies used for animals," he said.

Beck & Stone posted on its website Tuesday that an animal charity was helping pay the bills, along with pop star Huang Yong, who was the first to try to save the dog and had also donated some CDs to the pet hospital.

Although the dog owner was condemned by the public, he did not commit any crime in China's legal system.

"We don't have any laws to punish such behavior in China, so what he did is not a crime. In my opinion, legislation concerning animal welfare is urgently needed in China now," said Xu Jinqi from the China Small Animal Protection Association.

This contrasts with animal welfare laws in other nations.

In the UK, James Bray, 24, was sentenced to two months jail, fined and given a lifetime ban on owning pets after killing his Staffordshire Bull terrier by throwing it from his 10th-floor apartment, according to newspaper The Independent on July 25.