[Beijing Diary] China's Online Cat Moms and Cat Dads

The issue of caring for stray dogs and street cats is a hot topic worldwide, with strong opinions on both sides. Frequent disputes arise among neighbors due to indiscriminate breeding, care on unauthorized private property, damage to personal property such as vehicles, and waste management problems.

China, large and populous as it is, is no exception. According to the 2021 China Pet White Paper, there are 40 million stray dogs and 53 million street cats in China. This means that the number of dogs and cats wandering the streets without owners approaches 100 million. After an incident last year in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where a two-year-old girl was seriously injured by an unleashed Rottweiler, the need for pet management became a public topic in China, bringing the issue of stray animals to the forefront.

Amid the rapidly growing Chinese pet market and increasing social interest, there is an application gaining attention locally called "Annyeong Gilgoyang-i (哈?街?·Hello Jiemao)." Developed by the Chinese IT company Hello, this app focuses on cat capture, neutering, and release (TNR), feeding, sponsorship, and forming communities among sponsors. Hello installs cabins known as "cat restaurants" at designated locations, equipped with three CCTV cameras inside and nearby to regularly monitor the cats' conditions.

Sponsors can check on the cats they support via CCTV and remotely provide food or water. Remarkably, the installed cameras recognize the cats' faces and notify sponsors in real time when their cats visit the cabin. They also observe and collect data on individual cats’ physical characteristics, personalities, and habits.

Cabins installed in residential complexes or parks, where prior agreements have been made, are useful in many ways. They continuously attract cats to designated spots, reducing inconvenience to residents and facilitating smoother capture for neutering surgeries. To this end, they cooperate with animal hospitals and, as of the end of last year, have performed neutering surgeries on a total of 12,000 cats. This system naturally resolves conflicts between cat caregivers and residents who oppose them, which have been controversial in many places.

A cat is sitting in a cafe in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kim Hyunjung)

According to the Chinese media IT Sibo, these cat cabins have been installed in 13 cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. Shanghai alone has 5,000 to 6,000 cabins. It is known that 30 to 40 personnel regularly manage these cabins in Shanghai.

Within China, large companies like Meituan are engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities such as animal rescue and protection through charity and donations. At the end of last year, officials from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, representatives of the National People's Congress, and city government executives gathered to hold a meeting on management models for stray dogs and cats.

We tend to generalize about China and Chinese people based on certain attitudes and behaviors. However, there is also a movement in China to incorporate advancements in science and technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), into social consensus related to animal rights.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.