The location that the videos and images were taken has been identified as a picturesque city south-west of Shanghai, Hangzhou. This city was also identified from the websites on which the material was originally posted. In further attempts to identify the woman, some reporters have posted the material to a number of websites, hoping to gather more information.
Attention was further focused on China as the source of the material when an internet stumbled across a 37-year-old woman from Hubei province with the internet name "Gainmas". She had reportedly registered a website in Hangzhou and bought a pair of stilettos on eBay last year. She had also registered with a popular Chinese messaging service and wrote, "I furiously crush everything to do with you and me." When questioned by a reporter, she defended herself by saying, "Suddenly hundreds of people are on my QQ and cursing me. What's the problem if I crush cats? It's a type of experience. You wouldn't understand."
No Chinese laws are in place to prevent cruelty to animals. The outrage at this incident has brought hope to a Chinese representative of the International Fund for Animal Welfare who told the Telegraph, "We are still trying to confirm who it is in the pictures and where it is, " he said. "The embarrassing thing is that there are no available laws in China governing this type of misbehaviour. We are trying to draft an open letter to the authorities asking for the possibility of creating an animal welfare law."
