Pei’s Blog – We cannot legislate for compassion

1 August 2026

Turning tragedy into prevention

When I first read about the events in Guangdong, I felt the same sense of horror that millions of others did.

On 28 June 2026, four minors in Jieyang, Guangdong tortured and killed a stray dog and her puppies – filming the abuse and uploading it online. The footage shocked people around the world, and the public response was immediate: outrage, heartbreak, and renewed calls for tougher animal protection laws.

Those reactions are understandable. Our instinct is to demand harsher punishments and stronger legislation. But while legal reform is essential, this tragedy also forces a different question.

How do we stop children from ever becoming capable of acts like this in the first place?

Looking beyond punishment

Too often, discussions about animal cruelty begin and end with the law. But laws exist to hold people accountable after harm has already taken place, and by then it is already too late for the victim.

Laws can discourage cruelty, but they rely on something children are still developing: an understanding of why cruelty is wrong. A legal system cannot create empathy or teach compassion. Those lessons are learned earlier, through experience, education, and the examples children see around them.

If our goal is truly to reduce animal suffering, prevention has to become just as important as punishment.

Compassion is learnt

For me, this is the most important lesson from the Guangdong case.

Children are not born inherently cruel or inherently kind. They learn what is acceptable through repeated experiences, observing how adults treat animals and others, learning boundaries when corrected, and gradually coming to understand that all living beings deserve care and respect. When empathy is never nurtured, those lessons may never fully develop.

Modern research increasingly shows that empathy is not a fixed trait but a skill, strengthened through education, positive role models, and practice. That is a hopeful message, because it means kindness can be taught.

This is exactly why ACTAsia’s Caring for Life programme matters. Through humane education, children learn to recognise the feelings of others, understand the consequences of their actions, and develop compassion that extends to animals and people alike..

Laws matter – but they can’t do it alone

None of this means legislation is unimportant. Comprehensive animal protection laws remain vital: they establish society’s standards, provide justice for victims, and reinforce the principle that cruelty is unacceptable.

But education and legislation serve different purposes rather than competing ones. Laws respond after harm has occurred; education works before harm begins.
A child’s sense of empathy develops years before they are old enough to understand legal consequences. If we wait until punishment is necessary, we have already missed the chance to prevent suffering.

The story we shouldn’t overlook

What struck me most about the Guangdong incident was not only the cruelty itself, but the response from within China.

International reporting can leave readers with the impression that concern for animal welfare is limited. The reaction to this case tells a very different story. Across China, people expressed overwhelming sadness and anger, and local authorities acted quickly, placing the children into specialist education, requiring increased parental supervision, and urging the public not to keep sharing the footage, which risked encouraging imitation. At the same time, thousands of compassionate citizens reached out to organisations like ACTAsia asking how they could help.

I saw this response with my own eyes. I posted short video reels about this case on Facebook, Instagram and Xiaohongshu (RedNote), a Chinese platform. The reel on RedNote alone reached more than 25,000 views, over 8,000 likes and more than 1,000 comments. The overwhelming majority were supportive—people mourning the animals, condemning the cruelty, and speaking up for those who could not speak for themselves. And when some comments tried to mock or belittle the conversation, other viewers stepped in to defend the abused animal.

This deserves attention too. It shows that countless people across China care deeply about animal welfare and are working towards a more compassionate society.

Building a kinder future

Meaningful change will never come from condemnation alone. It will come from supporting the people already working to create change, investing in humane education, and helping children develop compassion before violence ever becomes possible.

Nothing can undo what that stray dog and her puppies endured. But this tragedy can still teach us something. The question should not only be how severely we punish children after they harm an animal, but how we ensure they never grow into children capable of doing so in the first place.

If we truly want a kinder future—for animals and for people—we must recognise that compassion cannot simply be legislated into existence.

It has to be taught.

Turning grief into action

Believing that compassion can be taught is not enough. We have to act on it.

That is why ACTAsia will use the Jieyang case to demonstrate the urgent need for Caring for Life education in Chinese primary schools. We will bring it to People’s Representatives and urge that CFL education be included in the national curriculum—so that learning kindness becomes part of every child’s education, not a matter of chance. We will also reach out directly to schools in the city where this tragedy took place, encouraging them to welcome Caring for Life into their classrooms. Where cruelty once made headlines, we want compassion to take root.

You can help us get there

We cannot reach every school, every teacher and every child on our own. If this story has moved you, please stand with us. Your support helps us bring Caring for Life education into more classrooms across China and beyond—reaching the children whose kindness, once nurtured, will shape a gentler world for animals and people alike.

Together, we can make sure the next chapter is written not in cruelty, but in compassion.

Pei Su is a Chinese sociologist and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACTAsia, an international NGO established in 2006. She is a strong advocate of education and training as the main vehicle for long term sustainability, aiming to inspire people to understand and appreciate the world we share, and to take responsibility for the protection and preservation of its inhabitants and resources.