Originally published 2020-10-04.
In late September 2020, volunteers from a Chinese animal rescue group found thousands of dead pets packed in parcels at a courier depot in Henan province. By their estimate at least 5,000 animals, mostly puppies and kittens along with rabbits and guinea pigs, had died in their boxes after being left without food or water for days. Only a few hundred were saved. The animals had reportedly been bought online and sent through the delivery network like ordinary packages.
This article sets out what happened, where earlier reports got details wrong, why live animals end up in the post in China, and what anyone buying a pet anywhere can learn from it.
Volunteers photographed rows of parcel cages and boxes at the Luohe depot in September 2020. The image shows dead animals and is blurred by default.
What the rescuers found
According to the Global Times, about 20 members of a rescue group called Wutuobang ("Utopia") went to the Dongxing logistics station in Luohe, a city in Henan province, on 22 September 2020. Inside were more than 6,000 small boxes and crates. Most animals were already dead.
A volunteer named Dan told the paper they managed to save about 50 cats and dogs and 200 rabbits, which he estimated was fewer than 5 percent of the animals there. He said the others had died of suffocation, starvation or thirst. Healthy survivors were taken in by local families and sick ones were sent to veterinary clinics. The dead animals were later collected, disinfected and buried.
The group's founder, who uses the name Sister Hua, told CBS News the station was full of express boxes and described the scene simply: "It was like a living hell." She said a second batch was found at Dameng village in Henan, where about 1,000 animals were rescued and roughly as many had died.
Where the animals came from and how they got stuck
The animals were said to have come from a commercial breeding farm in Anhui province. They were trucked to a logistics hub in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, on 17 September, and then moved on to Luohe, where they were found. Many had probably died before they even reached the Luohe station. Some earlier reports placed the discovery in Zhengzhou; the depot was in fact in Luohe, roughly 150 km to the south.
Waybills showed the parcels were handled by Yunda Express, one of China's large courier companies. Yunda staff contacted by the Global Times said they had not heard of the incident but confirmed that the company allowed live animals to be sent in boxes with air holes. The rescue group believed the parcels had been stranded after a delayed collection, possibly because a shipment broke transport rules and was held up while no one took responsibility for the animals inside.
Sister Hua blamed miscommunication inside the shipping company and patchy enforcement of the rules, and said buyers and sellers shared the responsibility.
Is it illegal to post live animals in China?
Older versions of this story stated flatly that sending animals through the mail is illegal in China. The truth is more complicated, and it helps explain why the trade continued.
Lawyer Zhang Bo told the Global Times that the implementing rules of China's Postal Law, introduced in 1990, prohibit sending live animals by post. However, he said the rules carried no matching penalties, which made it hard for authorities to punish anyone who broke them. Private couriers operated in a grey zone: some refused live animals, others accepted them in ventilated boxes. In practice, animals bought on shopping platforms were routinely shipped across the country in parcels alongside clothes and electronics.
Early reports said authorities had opened an investigation, but no outcome, fines or charges were reported in the coverage available at the time. That gap is part of the story: a rule without enforcement did little to protect the animals.
The online pet trade behind the parcels
The Luohe case was not a one-off accident so much as the visible end of a business model. Breeders sell puppies, kittens and small animals cheaply online. Buyers pay for the animal and a delivery fee, and the animal travels for days through a network built for objects. Small, young animals are especially vulnerable to heat, cold, dehydration and stress, and a single delay at a depot can be fatal.
The incident went viral in China, with one pet blogger's post drawing millions of views, and it added to public pressure on courier companies. A few months later, in early 2021, another scandal over animals sold in "mystery boxes" sparked similar outrage, covered in our related article below.
Animal welfare and public health
Moving live animals without veterinary checks, proper containers or a clear person in charge is a welfare problem first. Animals cannot drink, eat or regulate their temperature in a sealed parcel, and no one along the route is trained or required to care for them.
It is also a health issue. Many countries require health certificates and controlled conditions for live-animal transport partly because animals can carry diseases that spread to other animals and, in some cases, to people. Shipping thousands of young animals from breeding farms with no checks makes outbreaks harder to trace and control.
What pet buyers anywhere can take from it
- Consider adoption first. Sister Hua urged the public to adopt rather than buy animals that are shipped illegally. Shelters and rescues in most countries have puppies and kittens as well as adult animals.
- See the animal and the seller in person when you can. A seller who will only ship, never meet, is a warning sign.
- Ask how the animal will travel. Responsible sellers use specialist pet transport with food, water and supervision, not general parcel services.
- Be wary of very low prices. Cheap animals often reflect cheap breeding and cheap transport, with the cost paid by the animals.
- Report suspected cruelty to local animal welfare authorities or recognised rescue groups.
The thousands of animals that died in Luohe were not lost because of one careless worker. They were lost in a chain of sellers, couriers, buyers and regulators in which no one was clearly responsible for keeping them alive. Making sure someone is responsible, at every step, is the simplest way to stop it happening again.
Sources: Global Times (29 September 2020); CBS News (30 September 2020). Photo: rescue volunteers at the Luohe depot, as circulated in Chinese media.
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