Chinese woman boils and skins cat to make soup, posts images online

A Chinese woman has become the focus of an online hate campaign in China after she posted images of herself boiling a cat and using the remains to make soup.

Li Jinbang uploaded the disturbing pictures of her killing her friend's pet to Weibo, the Chinese version of Facebook.

She began receiving hate mail and threats from fellow users, and before she could delete the post, the images went viral.

She later even posted the pictures and explained how she had boiled the animal before stripping its fur and cutting it to pieces.

The images included the defenceless cat cowering in a cage before it was hung up, prior to being butchered.

After being bombarded with emails, including hate messages, she tried to defend herself by saying the cat, which in the images looked perfectly healthy prior to being boiled, had been badly injured in a car accident and she was simply doing a friend a favour by putting it out of its misery.

She said: 'It was a perfectly lawful killing and I killed the cat and ate it without doing anything illegal.'

Some users pointed out it was no surprise she was from southeast China’s Guangdong province, which is famous for its exotic eating habits, which often include unusual animal dishes.

China officially frowns on the process of eating cats, but estimated around 4million are eaten in the country each year.

In 2012, authorities drafted legislation to make the eating of cats and dogs illegal with jail sentences of up to 15 days for offenders.

But officials admit that the number of cats eaten is rising each year.