German shepherd ‘cries’ after being forced by its Chinese owner to eat chillies

A German shepherd in China has been forced by its owner to eat a bowl of red chillies during live-stream as a genre of animal binge-eating videos has emerged on Chinese social media.

Appalling footage shows the hound chomping down the spicy dish in front of the camera with tears coming down from the corner of its eye, appearing to be crying.

The disturbing new trend became popular on the internet after China cracked down on people doing online eating shows as part of the country’s national campaign to curb food waste.

Before President Xi launched an ‘Operation Empty Plate’ campaign against food waste in August, Chinese social media users thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘Chibo’ videos, or Mukbang, a popular online phenomenon originated in South Korea.

Loosely translated as ‘eating broadcast’, the internet craze sees people consuming an excessive amount of food during live-stream while interacting with their audience.

But China has since banned people sharing this type of content, prompting Chinese pet owners to take advantage of the situation by sharing videos of animal overeating a raft of unusual food and snacks.

In one live-streamed clip, a dog owner forced his German shepherd to eat a bowl of La Zi Ji, or Chongqing Chilli Chicken, a regional dish known for its extremely spicy flavours.

The hound can be seen in the video obediently munching on the dish with tears that seemingly triggered by how spicy the food was.

The Chinese owner wrote on the post: ‘He is enjoying it very much,’ referring to the German shepherd.

A separate video shows two dogs being forced to eat 38 different kinds of human snacks and drinks altogether as a ‘food challenge’.

Another sees a pet owner forcing popping candy down a husky’s throat while gripping the pet’s mouth to keep it closed.

Such content has attracted hundreds of thousands of likes on Chinese video-sharing platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, despite most animals featured in this type of videos do not appear as ‘happy’ as their owners claim, reports say.

But the new online trend has also faced a fierce backlash from horrified animal lovers who urge the authorities to shut down the accounts.

One commenter wrote: ‘This is just a new way of abusing animals. They don’t deserve to keep pets, what a bunch of cold-blooded bastards! Poor animals, they trust their owners unconditionally yet the owners just use them as cash cows.’

Another one said: ‘These people are so sick! They need to be censored immediately!’

A third netizen wrote: ‘Jesus, can’t you see it’s crying? How can you film him eating chillies while watching him cry and in pain?’

The German shepherd’s owner has deleted the video after facing widespread criticism online. 

He claimed that he knew chillies were bad for the dog but his pet ‘really enjoyed eating it’, reported Chinese media.