In Loving Memory of Cow Cat

Content warning: graphic descriptions of animal cruelty.

CowCat was a stray cat who was captured and subjected to 36 hours of brutal torture on March 14th 2023. Her torturer pulled out her nails one by one with pliers, pierced her with hot iron skewers, dragged her, beat her, trampled her, drowned her, choked her and tied her to a tree and left her, only to come back the next day with more gruesome torture methods. CowCat was dismembered alive, shoved inside a bag and finally burnt alive.

It was observed that Cowcat never wailed while she was being tortured. CowCat stared at her abuser with a fire in her eyes and fought for her life til the very end. She demonstrated an extreme level of strength, courage and endurance during 36 hours of torture before she was burnt to her death.

Chinese activists and International activists all over the world has adopted CowCat as the face and symbol to fight against Cat Torture . CowCat is the logo for Feline Protectors International (FPI) and the movement that fights against Cat Torture Networks globally. We vow to carry CowCat’s name and fire with us forever!

Her torturer’s name is 徐志辉 which translates to “Xu Zhihui” who was a famous Chinese food blogger with the online handle “Jack Latiao (Spicy Strips)”. The man, who was 29 years old at the time, posted short clips of CowCat’s torture video to Tencent QQ groups where he requested money for the full video. Chinese netizens exposed Xu for his actions and demanded police look into the stolen cat. Netizens also posted screenshots of chats where he sold videos of cat abuse to a client, claiming that “abusing cats is not illegal in China”. He also claimed he tortured and killed many stray cats before, and sold the videos online. Cowcat’s story went viral on Chinese social media and netizens were outraged!

On April 26, 2023, Chinese activists reported Xu Zhihui’s location to the Police stating that he had stolen the cat. Upon receiving the report, the Chengbei Police Station immediately dispatched officers to the scene and initiated an investigation. The police found hundreds of cat abuse videos on his devices including a video of a kitten in a blender. The Funan County Public Security Bureau imposed a 14-day administrative detention on Xu Zhihui. Unfortunately, Chinese activists could not attain stricter punishment due to CowCat being a stray/community cat and not a high-value pet cat.

By May 2023, CowCat’s story went viral across international social media. The terms “Cat in blender” “Cat in microwave” “Cat tortured for 36 hours” were trending on Google. Telegram groups and websites with the name “Jack Latiao” surfaced and directed users to sites on the dark web containing cat torture videos up to hours in length.

On September 27, 2026, Xu Zhihui and his wife were stabbed by a woman who later fell to her death while fleeing the scene. Chinese reports allege that Xu Zhihui was in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Chinese Police stated that the attack stemmed from a personal grudge and they would not disclose details of the case at this time.

The cat torture network has grown exponentially since CowCat’s incident. International buyers are commissioning Chinese abusers and paying for cats to be tortured weekly. Buyers also requests customized torture such as “Sacrifice cat on Sigil of Baphomet”, “Nail cat on wooden cross” and “Vivisection”.

FPI, along with Chinese activists analyzed over 50+ torture methods used to torture cats based on openly available cat torture videos from the dark web. Telegram groups with thousands of members actively promote websites and instructions on how to access the torture content on the dark web. There are also premium groups where where users pay a subscription for weekly posted cat torture videos. The network also sells customized torture videos to interested buyers. FPI also documented requests to recreate CowCat suffering and online campaigns such as “100 cat kill contest” posted by the network.

The Network’s operators are anonymous online, protected by services from Cloudflare, Telegram, Session and SimpleX. Many efforts were made to take down groups and the network’s websites but operators would purchase a new domain and create new groups.