He'd kill a dog a day, a bold-talking Internet user boasted, in protest against the activists who had stopped a truck en route to the slaughterhouse and bought the dogs three weeks ago.

On April 15 animal lovers dramatically rescued 520 dogs from a truck that was taking them to the slaughterhouse. After using their cars to blockade the truck for 15 hours, the activists paid a 100,000 yuan ransom to save the dogs from their date with the dinner table.

"Dog rescuers on highways, if you don't use the huge money you used on rescuing dogs to save people (starving students who go to class), I'll kill a dog a day starting June 1 to protest your hypocrisy!" Zhu Guangbing, "Internet poet," wrote on his microblog Wednesday morning.

Zhu's post and similar declarations on popular Internet forums drew both widespread online support and condemnation.

The dog killing would be called off if the rescuers "apologized," Zhu's "secretary" who requested anonymity told the Shanghai Morning Post.

"Zhu has already hired three lawyers and the killing will be notarized by the public notary office of Guangzhou from where the video will be uploaded online," the secretary said.

The dogs would all come from dog farms that already supply popular hotpot restaurants, she said.

"I'll admit claiming I'll kill dogs is kind of extreme," Zhu said Sunday, "but their behavior of blocking trucks on the highway was actually more extreme and broke the law."

115,000 yuan

About 200 Internet users on April 15 forced a truck carrying 480 dogs on the Beijing-Harbin Highway to stop and after 15 hours' negotiations succeeded in buying all the dogs for about 115,000 yuan (US$17,606).

The rescuers blocked the highway and forced police to shut down a nearby exit, according to earlier Global Times reports.

"If farmers blocked the highway like this they would just be detained by the police," Zhu said.

"I just want to use extreme words to warn them to do the right thing." Illegality was not Zhu's prime motivation, he admitted. His main beef was an "immoral" waste of money on rescuing mere animals.