The latest pop-up fad that has recently reared its ugly head in China is the mystery animal box craze also known as “blind-box” which is even causing outrage in China itself which isn’t renowned for its animal welfare outlook. The craze started when a company sold mystery boxes containing ceramic figurines, but as always unscrupulous traders got involved and incredibly decided it was not a problem to use live animals instead.
Unbeliveably, the new craze involves ordering a box on-line containing a mystery live animal inside which is then sent by post to you so that you can excitedly open it to see what type of animal you have been sent. You really couldn’t make it up, but some idiot has, and recently 160 suffering puppies and kittens were found in a courier vehicle in Chengdu province, some of which unsurprisingly had died. Other animals involved in the craze include tortoises, reptiles and small mammals like rats.
A local animal rescue centre, the Chengdu Aizhijia centre took charge of the animals and were treating 38 of them. A well known Chinese on-line e-commerce site named Taobao apparently has been advertising these mystery boxes.
Animal crazes keep on coming.
Throughout the last few decades there has been a constant stream of animal focused crazes whether it be mice dipped in vats of dye to make them colourful, themed animal cafes involving otters, big cats and monkeys or Neknominate involving eating live goldfish and other creatures.
We have had ‘pocket pets’, the popularity of which spread by social media all around the world with the obvious consequences. Then we had a celebrity led craze for “handbag” dogs which were just traditional toy breeds, but had to be carried in a bag instead of allowing them to be normal dogs. Not satisfied with handbag dogs someone had to go further by breeding miniscule dogs and invent the “Teacup” dog which literally could fit in a tea cup.
These fads and crazes keep on coming and as always at the expense of the animals involved and I dread what comes next.
