Battling pet lover spends years fighting for justice for her beloved canine, facing down bullies, rumour-mongers
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenFran Luin BeijingPublished: 2:00pm, 4 Apr 2026A Chinese woman who sacrificed her job and life to get revenge on a neighbour who poisoned her pet dog to death has shown her face publicly for the first time.
After her beloved pet dog Papi, a 13-year-old white West Highland Terrier, was poisoned and killed in a children’s playground in her residential compound in Beijing in 2022, Li Yihan has dedicated her life to defending the animal’s rights.
Police found a 65-year-old man surnamed Zhang, who lived in the neighbourhood, to be the perpetrator.
He reportedly left pieces of chicken dipped in sodium fluoroacetate, an extremely toxic, odourless salt in the playground. It is also highly poisonous to humans.
On the same day, a total of 11 pet dogs were poisoned. Nine died.
After that, Li sacrificed her job, her personal life and “all unnecessary social activities” for over three years to fight for her dog’s rights. They had been together since the animal was two months old.
Li recently appeared on stage to speak about her experience.
