Doctors who rushed to attend an emergency call to save a ‘girl’ here were in for a shock when the patient turned out to be a female pet dog suffering from cardiac complications.
The Beijing News today reported the first-aid station hospital in Xicheng District of Beijing received a call requesting the emergency service that "a six-year-old girl with inborn heart disease" was in critical condition.
When the ambulance arrived, doctors found that the patient a dog. "The husband directed us to their apartment, the wife was crying to collapse," a doctor surnamed Lu was quoted as saying.
He said the couple asked the doctors to inject medicine to the dog, but they had never given shots to animals. The emergency medical team advised the couple to deliver the dog to a pet hospital.
"We quite understand the situation but citizens should use first-aid call centre 120 in the right way to save human lives," Lu said.
Many pet owners see their pets as family members, nonetheless, many netizens criticised the pet-loving couple for misusing the human first-aid service after the story was spread through the tweeting cyberspace.
In a country where dog meat is regarded a delicacy, increasing number of Chinese are taking to canine for companionship to beat the loneliness.
China is also witnessing a spurt in save dog activists, who were in recent months waylaying trucks carrying hundreds of dogs to slaughter houses.