Netizens urged to lay off youngster over cat deaths

SHANGHAI - Experts in animal rights and psychology have urged people not to vilify a 10-year-old boy after it was claimed he intentionally killed five newborn kittens.

According to reports by China Small Animal Protection Association's Shanghai bureau, the animals were discovered dead by residents in a community in the north of this eastern metropolis on Aug 27.

In a post forwarded about 6,000 times on Sina Weibo, a micro-blogging website, the bureau claimed that the boy had killed the 2-day-old kittens while playing with them.