Every night when he gets home from work, Chen opens his laptop and enters his secret life as an undercover activist.
From his bedroom in eastern China, he spends hours watching images too graphic for a horror film while attempting to meet people who would be his sworn enemies in real life.
Chen, a pseudonym used to shield his real identity, is part of a team of online sleuths tasked with shutting down a secret global network that mutilates and kills animals for profit.
According to an exclusive CNN investigation, these groups have grown in size and popularity around the world over the last year, moving to more mainstream platforms including as Telegram, X, and YouTube.
Consumers of these movies frequently have a sexual desire for animal cruelty, known as “zoosadism,” and derive pleasure from viewing the agony of defenseless animals, specialists told CNN.
“It’s become a pretty international phenomenon,” said Jenny Edwards, a criminologist and expert on animal sexual abuse based in Seattle. “It is happening much more often than people realize.”
Activists claim that many of the cat torturers are headquartered in China, where there are no laws prohibiting animal cruelty. They create videos for consumers all across the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Japan, while being protected by an apparent culture of impunity.
CNN has filed inquiries to the Chinese government regarding this matter, but has yet to get a response.
Undercover with the cat torturers.
CNN conducted a months-long investigation into some of China’s encrypted chat groups that promote and distribute films of cat abuse.
The chat groups depict an underworld in which torture is trivialized and embraced as if it were part of a video game.
Members have also formed a competitive culture in order to suggest the most imaginative style of abuse – while making abusers into heroes.
CNN watched as members shared stories about alleged exploits and advocated new types of depravity.
Chen was in comparable groups. For years, he’s been watching terrible movies and befriending torturers to acquire enough information to find them.
He is a member of the Feline Guardians, an activist group that hopes that raising awareness about the issue would put pressure on law enforcement around the world, particularly in China.
“China is now experiencing a wave of cat abuse, from elementary school students all the way to the elderly participating in it,” according to Chen.
According to Chen, the number of people active in Chinese-based networks is “growing larger and larger,” and this includes foreigners living outside of the country.
Data acquired by Feline Guardians revealed a 500% rise in the number of new torture videos added to the Chinese Telegram groups they monitor between June 2024 and February 2025, with a new video being uploaded approximately every 2.5 hours. Over 500 new torture movies have been released in the first two months of this year, the majority of which are from previously unknown abusers.
Some of this footage is even available on mainstream websites, such as a YouTube account discovered by CNN that contained “playlists” of over 800 films of cats being killed. After CNN requested comment, YouTube banned the channel and a related one for “violating its policies,” with a spokeswoman stating that “content depicting violence or abuse toward animals has no place on YouTube.”