Chinese health workers wearing hazmat suits have executed a corgi in the name of pandemic protocols while the dog's owner was undertaking Covid quarantine.
The government officials bashed the animal's head with a crowbar after entering the home in Shangrao in southeastern Jiangxi province on Friday, shocking video shows.
The corgi's owner, named only as Fu, was undergoing compulsory quarantine in a nearby hotel at the time, even though she is negative for Covid and the dog was never even tested.
Chinese health workers wearing hazmat suits have executed a corgi in the name of pandemic protocols while the dog's owner was undertaking Covid quarantine
The killing was the latest example of the horrifying lengths China is going to in order to achieve Zero Covid.
Fu had been ordered to leave her home after positive cases were detected in her residential compound.
Just hours later, CCTV footage showed two pandemic workers entering the living room wielding a crowbar and a plastic bag.
One of them is heard asking: 'Did the leader say we need to settle it right here on the spot?'
The other then replies: 'Yes.'
He then approaches the corgi which is hiding under a table and whacks it in the head with the crowbar, causing it to whimper and run into another room.
The government officials bashed the animal's head with a crowbar after entering the home in Shangrao in southeastern Jiangxi province on Friday, shocking video shows
The killing was the latest example of the horrifying lengths China is going to in order to achieve Zero Covid
The video was shared by the dog's owner and depicts the moments before the corgi was killed.
A district government official said the workers were instructed to disinfect the home but were forced to apologise to Fu for carrying out the 'decontamination treatment' on the dog.
It is not yet clear if they were following orders to kill the dog.
Chinese authorities are under pressure to curb rising infections as the Delta variant continues to spread.
So far, around 1,300 cases have been recorded across two thirds of the country's provinces.
The execution has sparked debate about the draconian methods to stamp out the virus as well as animal rights issues.
The video was shared by the dog's owner and depicts the moments before the corgi was killed
All residents in the complex were ordered to enter quarantine on Friday and leave their pets behind at home.
Fu said workers had repeatedly told her they would not take away or kill the dog in her absence.
She wrote in a since-deleted post: 'The dog tried to avoid the beating and fled into the bedroom, and therefore it wasn't recorded by surveillance camera, but (I) could hear faint wails.
