Releasing captive animals into the wild is a Buddhist practice with a long history in China. But one such attempt went awry over the New Year holiday in Haikou, in south China's Hainan Province.

Locals released turtles, eels and even pythons on the beach, then fled, leaving the creatures to fend for themselves on the sand. By the time local firefighters arrived in the afternoon, most of the pythons were dead, and only five survived. Netizens expressed their anger about this irresponsible release of animals, with some commenting that “it is better not to do stupid charity activities.”

In recent years, there have been several cases of species being released en masse in an environment completely unsuited to them, leading to the deaths of many released animals, as well as local species, and breaking the delicate balance of the ecosystem.