Cover image via
Alex Sim (Facebook)
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The sad update was shared by the chicken rice stall operator, Alex Sim, on his Facebook account on Monday evening, 17 May.
Over the last few years, Sim had continued to upload videos of Xiao Bai, who came regularly to his stall to ‘tapau’ food that he would pack for her.
In the videos, the mild-mannered dog always amused Sim and his employees as she can be seen taking the bags of food carefully in her mouth and walking out of the food court; never bothering other customers by eating at the premises.
However, Sim’s latest update came as a surprise, as it simply read, “Xiao Bai, humans are terrible, including me. Rest in peace.”
Although Sim had not revealed how Xiao Bai passed away on Facebook, a woman claiming to be Xiao Bai’s owner told China Press what had happened.
On Monday morning, even though the owner had called Xiao Bai to come home, the dog went roaming outside of the house as usual.
“But at the time, I saw a few people who looked like city council officers nearby. When I realised they were going to shoot some dogs, I quickly ran out to find Xiao Bai,” she told the Chinese daily in anonymity.
Unfortunately, she was unable to trace the dog. Around 11am, she received a text message from a neighbour that Xiao Bai had been shot and was found on the ground nearby.
“I asked the officers what was going on, and they told me they were only shooting tranquilliser drugs, so Xiao Bai should wake up in about two hours,” she said.
“But after 2pm, Xiao Bai still did not wake up.”
The dog owner said by 4pm, she found Xiao Bai’s body had stiffened and only then did she realise that the dog had really passed away.
When she contacted the city council again to know what tranquilliser they used, she said she was extremely unsatisfied when the council instead told her that the dog’s resistance to the drug must have been weak, which was why it died.
The owner also said she was unhappy that the officers had targeted her, though she admitted to receiving a warning letter the week before about keeping an unlicensed dog wandering around the neighbourhood.
After his initial post, Sim apologised to his followers that he could not respond to their comments enquiring about Xiao Bai.
“I’m too upset right now, I can’t respond to your messages, my apologies,” he said.
In a later post, he wrote that Xiao Bai was a good dog, but what has happened cannot be undone and asked people to stop speculating who was right or wrong.
“Rest in peace, Xiao Bai! I hope you get over the rainbow bridge and become a happy angel,” said a Facebook user.
Meanwhile, another netizen said, “Very pitiful such an intelligent dog simply killed this way. Just hope she will be happy in heaven. All dogs go to heaven.”
This netizen cried, “I’m truly thinking of Xiao Bai, my tears can’t stop falling after watching all the videos of Xiao Bai taking away food. She was so cute, I can’t believe we cannot see her anymore after this. I hope Xiao Bai becomes a little angel in heaven.”