Dog killed in China by COVID-19 workers as owner watches via security cam

The dog's owner was in mandatory COVID-19 quarantine at a nearby hotel when she watched disease prevention workers kill her pet.

NOTE: This story contains disturbing details of violence against an animal. Please read at your own discretion.

Video footage of a dog being killed by COVID-19 prevention workers in China has sparked outrage after a clip showing the incident went viral on Chinese social media.

A woman claiming to be the owner of the dog posted the video to the Chinese social media site Weibo last Friday.

In the video post, which has been viewed by Global News and has since been taken down, a small corgi is woken up by two workers entering the apartment. The corgi cowers underneath a table as the workers discuss the dog’s fate.

“Did the leader say we need to settle it right here on the spot?” a worker dressed in full hazmat suit can be heard asking. “Yes,” the other replies, before striking the dog on the head with a crowbar. The dog whimpers and runs off-camera. Later, the two workers are seen returning to screen, carrying something in a yellow plastic bag — presumably the dog.

The dog’s owner, CNN reports, was undergoing mandatory quarantine in a nearby hotel in the Chinese city of Shangrao, in southeastern Jiangxi province. Several people in her building tested positive for the virus, but she later tested negative.

The woman, who was watching through a security camera installed in her apartment, tried to negotiate with the workers through the camera’s microphone feature, pleading them to stop. They told her they were just following orders.

Local authorities confirmed via press release that the dog had been killed as part of disinfection measures, but admitted they did so “without adequate communication” with the dog’s owner. They assured that the dog had been “disposed of harmlessly.”