Discover Self-Service Pet Vending Machines that spark outrage in China

3 min read

1 year ago Robin

Recently photos and videos of unmanned vending machines selling live animals like cats, small dogs, and rodents installed in various Chinese cities have been sparking outrage among the general public.

Well, the significant technological developments of the last decade have created a fast-growing “unmanned economy” that continues to spread into almost every sector of the global economy.
However, there are probably still some industries that are incompatible with unmanned, self-service devices, including the pet-selling sector, even if things are apparently very different in China, as more and more unmanned vending machines selling live pets are being spotted across the country.
One video showing a pet vending machine in a busy part of Beijing recently went viral on Chinese social media, sparking a heated debate around the ethics of this controversial business model, showing cats sleeping in small compartments barely large enough for them to turn around in, with only a transparent door to distract them from their claustrophobic containers.
The vending machine was reportedly advertised as the first in China to sell live pets, but several netizens pointed out that they had seen similar displays in other Chinese cities, and this was later confirmed by news reports that showed other pet vending machines, as well as online ads by companies producing them. The news outlet also reported Shanghai had a vending machine dispensing live animals as prizes already in 2020.

Although the animals shown in the video didn’t seem distressed or sick, several comments mentioned sick animals and even some that had died in their small cages due to lack of proper care.

“The education I received since childhood is to be a kind person, if you can’t do it, you must not have a basic conscience. Can these specimens with the same body as me really be called human beings?” one person asked.

“This land does not have basic respect for life!” someone else wrote.

But this isn’t the first display of animal cruelty that begs the question “Who approved that?”.
After all, this is the same country that brought us “living keychains” with small fish and turtles encased in plastic containers, artificially dyed frogs, and dyed chicks.
Either way, animal rights activists have condemned the practice, calling it cruel and emphasizing the potential harm to the animals’ physical and mental health. They argue the method of pet sales does not promote responsible pet ownership.