Animal shelter vet ends her life after online attacks over euthanasia, reports say
The director of an animal shelter in Taiwan reportedly ended her life after she received heavy criticism online for having to put dogs to sleep at work.
Jian Zhicheng, a veterinary doctor who worked at the Animal Protection Education Park in Taoyuan City, passed away five days after she injected herself with euthanasia drugs available at her workplace, say local reports.
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According to Chinese reports, she was already feeling depressed at having to put the dogs down, but it appears that the online backlash after she appeared on TV talking about her job was too much to bear.
In a suicide note she left behind, she said: "A (human) life is no different from a dog's; I will die from the same drugs that we use to put dogs peacefully to sleep."
She had been featured in a local TV news segment nearly exactly a year ago appealing for people to adopt, not buy dogs. She said the shelter was at capacity, and that it typically had to resort to putting down strays after just 12 days if they were not adopted.
She also revealed that she had put down 700 dogs in two years at work.
In the segment, she says on her first day at work, she cried herself to sleep at the guilt of having to put them down. She detailed how the staff at the shelter take the dogs for a walk and give them some treats, before comforting them as the lethal injection is administered.
Despite her apparent good intentions, online commenters called her the "female butcher" and "beautiful executioner."
The animal shelter told The Daily Mail that Jian had passed away, but did not confirm the cause.
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Topics Animals
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
