In April 2025, Wukong, the small cat who traveled through Xinjiang with cyclist Zhao Shuo, died. Early public reports mostly described the death as vehicle-related. Later, Zhao raised doubts based on examination materials and suspected poisoning, while public discussion uncovered references to a possible overseas bounty to kill popular internet cats. Wukong’s exact cause of death has seen changing public accounts, but the case connected one cat’s death with cat-abuse video profiteering, bounty-based harm, and platform-governance gaps.

A cat many people met on the road

Wukong was originally a stray cat. Public reports say Zhao Shuo encountered the kitten while cycling and camping around Kanas, Xinjiang, in October 2024. In the cold, the cat approached his tent for warmth. Zhao later adopted it and named it Wukong.

From then on, Wukong traveled through snowy mountains, desert roads, and long stretches of open land with Zhao. To many viewers, the cat was not a prop but a living companion in a journey, a small life that built trust with a human being over time.

Different public accounts of the death

Around April 16, 2025, multiple media outlets reported Wukong’s death. Zhao posted a plea for help, saying Wukong had died and that he had traveled from Milan Town toward Ruoqiang County to find a refrigerator for the body. Guanhai News, citing other reporting, said local police contacted Zhao to confirm he was safe. Another report said police initially understood that the cat had crawled under a vehicle and was accidentally struck.

The story did not end there. Later reports said Zhao questioned the simple accident account. He showed CT and X-ray materials said to be Wukong’s and argued that the bones and organs did not look like a traffic accident, but more like possible poisoning. These doubts prompted a wider question: what exactly happened to Wukong, and was human harm involved?

Later public information also suggested that Zhao had described the situation as closer to accidental ingestion of a small rodent rather than confirmed deliberate poisoning. This archive preserves that change. Wukong died abnormally, and accident, suspected poisoning, and later accidental-ingestion accounts all appeared publicly; without a complete investigation report, no single account is written here as final fact.

Why the suspected bounty caused anger

The strongest public reaction came from possible links to cat-abuse bounty networks. A China Youth Daily commentary noted that, while people were questioning Wukong’s death, they found indications that someone on an overseas platform had posted a task to kill popular internet cats. The same commentary made clear that any direct connection between such a bounty and Wukong’s death still required further investigation.

That boundary matters, but it does not make the issue small. Even if Wukong cannot be confirmed as the specific target, the public discussion exposed a structure in which animal harm can become a task, a video, a transaction, and a spectacle. It turns cruelty from an individual impulse into tradeable content.

From earlier cat-abuse scandals to the discussion after Wukong’s death, the same shadow keeps appearing: some people treat small lives as tools for entertainment, release, or profit, and some try to use overseas platforms and private circles to avoid oversight. The criticism does not need exaggeration. The facts are already enough.

What Wukong left behind

Wukong became known because the cat was vivid in a wide, cold landscape. It had once entered a tent on a winter night; later it traveled through wind, snow, and open roads with a cyclist. It did not know what internet fame meant. It simply lived, trusted, was held, and was remembered.

When an animal is loved by the public, it should not become more vulnerable. The opposite should be true: society should ask why content about harming animals can still be organized, traded, and circulated, and why ordinary companion animals and stray animals often lack strong protection when cruelty occurs.

Wukong can no longer answer those questions. What remains is public memory, Zhao’s night search for a refrigerator, the questions people asked, and the deeper anger toward animal-abuse profiteering. This archive records Wukong as a life, and records the cruelty network that surfaced around the case.

Timeline

• October 2024: Public reports say Zhao Shuo met a stray kitten while cycling in Xinjiang and later named it Wukong.
• Late 2024 to early 2025: Wukong traveled with Zhao, and videos of the cat became widely followed.
• April 15-16, 2025: Wukong died near Ruoqiang County. Zhao asked for help finding a refrigerator for the body; local police confirmed Zhao was safe.
• April-May 2025: Zhao questioned the accident account and public discussion focused on possible poisoning and a suspected bounty targeting internet cats.
• Afterward: Discussion extended to cat-abuse videos, overseas platforms, reporting channels, and animal-protection gaps.

Sources

• Guanhai News report: https://www.dailyqd.com/guanhai/380397_1.html
• New Hunan report: https://m.voc.com.cn/xhn/news/202504/28500962.html
• China Youth Daily client commentary: https://m.cyol.com/gb/articles/2025-05/09/content_zxbRWwfYZo.html