Police detained a man in eastern China for using public occupations to name his pet dogs.
Insisting that he was merely poking fun, Ban, 31, named his two pet dogs “Chengguan,” which refers to “city management officials” in China, and “Xieguan,” which translates to “traffic warden.”
According to Sohu News, authorities learned of the pets’ names after the 31-year-old dog breeder shared them on social media, along with posts about Chengguan stealing shoes and picking fights with Xieguan.
For those who may not know, chengguan are easily the least-liked public officials in China, responsible for dealing with low-level crimes and maintaining order in cities.
Chengguan are notoriously known for employing intimidating and sometimes violent means to enforce the law, such as beating a 56-year-old watermelon vendor to death.
Ban, who lives in Fuyang, Anhui province was placed under administrative detention for 10 days beginning on Monday for “provoking trouble.”
“I didn’t know the law,” Ban said, insisting that he only named them such for fun. “I didn’t know it was illegal.”
Ban’s story has since gone viral on Chinese social media, drawing mixed reactions from netizens.
Weibo users commented:
“This looks like abuse of power to me.”
“I have a friend whose dog is called Obama.”
“It won’t matter if you name your dog Trump, you might even get a round of applause.”
“This is technically not illegal, but when he shared it to his friends, circumstances changed.”
“So they actually find this insulting? Well I think violent law enforcement and corruption insult society.”
