AN arcade in Shenzhen, China, was accused of animal cruelty for placing hamsters in a claw machine, China Press reported.
There was much criticism online with many pointing out that the tight space, besides being repeatedly grabbed by metal claws, would cause stress for the tiny rodents.
Others claimed that no one was seen feeding the hamsters when the arcade workers went off for the Chinese New Year holidays.
When reporters visited the site, the hamsters were no longer there. Instead, they had been replaced with claw machines for aquatic animals including tortoises and gold fish.
According to a lawyer in Shenzhen, Zhang Ziang, China does not have legislation addressing cruelty towards “non-wild” animals, making it difficult to punish the perpetrators.
However, he pointed out that live animals in claw machines may violate the Animal Epidemic Prevention law, which requires businesses to obtain a certificate proving that they have the processes in place to prevent the spread of epidemics.
> Taiwanese rock band Mayday drew heavy flak for revising one of their concert dates in Hong Kong with fans complaining that they were being treated like “playthings”, Sin Chew Daily reported.
The five-man band was scheduled to hold a series of concerts between March 24 and March 28.
It was announced later that the March 24 show would be cancelled with a new concert slotted for March 29 instead to allow fans to celebrate the band’s 29th anniversary together.
The decision sparked backlash from fans, many of whom flooded record company B’in Music’s social media pages with angry comments.
Even though tickets to the March 24 show would be refunded, ticket goers are demanding compensation for airfare and accommodation costs.
“This is outrageous. We worked so hard to get tickets and now all our plans are ruined,” one Internet user wrote.
Another posting read: “Why should the fans on March 24 be penalised?”
Others complained of poor planning by the record company.
The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
