Hong Kong doctoral student arrested for animal cruelty after allegedly caught sprinkling salt over snails

The man said he was taking action against a potential threat to the ecosystem

Salt yields a chemical reaction of osmosis, drawing the water out of the shelled creatures, eventually killing them through dehydration (PA)

A doctoral student who allegedly poured salt over snails to kill them in Hong Kong’s Kowloon has been arrested for animal cruelty, reported the South China Morning Post.

The 25-year-old student from Hong Kong Polytechnic University was arrested by the police on Monday, SCMP reported. Police launched a probe earlier this month after reports of a man killing snails off the East Ocean Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui surfaced.

According to the SCMP report, the man was seen holding a bag of salt and was sprinkling it on wild snails.

Even as the people appealed to the man to stop, he told passers-by that snails posed a danger to the ecosystem and he was taking action to remove them.

His action amounted to animal cruelty as salt yields a chemical reaction of osmosis drawing the water out of the shelled creatures, eventually killing them through dehydration.

Animal crime team officials from Yau Tsim district arrested the student on Monday evening and took him to his Hillwood Road flat in Tsim Sha Tsui. The police also seized the doctoral student’s clothes he is believed to be wearing while committing the alleged crime.