Photo: Screenshot of online video

A residential community recently sparked a huge public outcry after requiring dog owners to hunt and kill their own pets. Although the community then quickly apologized for the inappropriate notice, most netizens did not buy it.

On Monday, photos circulating on the Internet showed a community in Yueyang, Central China's Hunan province, posting a notice pointing out the long-standing problem of uncivilized dog keeping in the community and asking owners to immediately rectify it. "According to the relevant laws and regulations, this community will prohibit the keeping of dogs from now on. Dog owners need to trap their dogs within ten days, otherwise the community will send people to trap them."

The notice immediately triggered dissatisfaction from a large number of owners, who took the incident to China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo.  The public demanded an explanation from the community management. On Monday afternoon, the notice was withdrawn.

"Our original purpose was to send a warning to the dog owners," the relevant person in charge of the community explained, "Because in the past year, six people in the community have been bitten by dogs."

"It is completely inhumane to ask pet owners to trap and kill their own dogs," wrote an angry netizen. But others pointed out that while this approach is too cruel, banning dog keeping in the city is worth considering.