This picture taken on May 26, 2021 shows a stray dog looking through a cage in Shanghai. State media said in 2019 that there were 50 million stray animals in China and that number is roughly doubling each year.
Hector RETAMAL / AFP
SHANGHAI: His bald head glistening with sweat, Zhi Xiang peers into the eyes of a stray dog whose coat has become matted in heavy rain and says soothingly: "Let me cut your hair, cutie."
The bedraggled pooch is among scores of dogs hauled off the streets of Shanghai by police and packed in metal cages in a foul-smelling holding area.