Owner of dog with 1.5 million followers claims he was stolen and eaten after being sold for $27

A dog with more than 1.5 million social media followers was stolen and sold to a restaurant, the owner has claimed.

Chutou the dog has more 1.58 million followers on Douyin, a Chinese social media platform, according to Asia One.

The border collie is owned by Guo, a travel influencer who lives in Henan province in China, who had frequently gone on trips with Chutou across the country.

But on May 11 Guo had gone out on a trip by himself, leaving Chutou in the care of his father, according to the South China Morning Post.

While Guo was away his father noticed that the dog had gone missing, with CCTV footage showing two people seizing Chutou, before leaving on an electric bike.

After his dad informed him what had happened, Guo returned home and tried to track Chutou down.

Eating dogs is not a widespread practice in China, and is in decline (Olga Pankova/Getty)

On May 14 Guo reportedly found out that Chutou had been sold on for the equivalent of around $26, and reporting from the South China Morning Post claimed that he had since been sold on again, before being slaughtered and eaten.

Eating dogs is not commonplace in China and is in decline, though it does still happen and slaughtering dogs is still legal in most of the mainland despite new legislation in 2020 which removed dogs from China's official list of animals considered to be livestock.

Meanwhile, although there is no national ban cities such as Zhuhai and Shenzhen have banned eating dogs and cats.

Unfortunately, Guo claimed that when he confronted an employee at the restaurant where he believed Chutou had been taken, the worker, a butcher, told him that the remains were 'thrown in the rubbish long ago'.

China removed dogs from animals considered 'livestock' in 2020, and some cities have introduced local bans (R A Kearton/Getty)

Someone believed to have been the thief also reportedly did not apologize over the incident, reportedly saying: "The dog is dead, so stop making a fuss", as well claiming they 'did not break the law.'

At present there are not animal protection laws around pets, and the alleged theft was dealt with as the theft of property according to reporting from the The Straits Times.

Meanwhile, lawyer Du Wei told the South China Morning Post that someone can only file criminal charges if the value of what was stolen if more than 2,000 yuan, around $295.

He added that it may be difficult to prove Chutou's financial value, both as a famous dog and a pet.

Guo has posted regularly about Chutou, and said that he intends to 'pursue the matter legally' in a post shared on May 31.