HANGZHOU -- A Chinese animal welfare group has teamed up with Alibaba's online platforms to initiate a plan to alleviate the suffering of stray animals.

The Aita Foundation for Animal Protection said Monday that with Alibaba's digital retail and group-buying platforms of Tmall Pet, Juhuasuan and the Alibaba Foundation, it has pooled a charity fund of 1 million yuan (about $151,200) and purchased pet food worth 1 million yuan for stray animals.

Under the charity plan, the partners will carry out activities to solve some basic survival problems of stray animals such as hunger and sterilization and attract people to pay attention to and participate in the rescue of stray animals so as to improve their situation.

In 2019 alone, the size of China's pet market reached 202.4 billion yuan, up 18.5 percent year on year, and the pet ownership rate reached 23 percent, up 4 percent year on year. At the same time, stray animals caused by pet abandonment and uncontrolled reproduction have also caused many social problems.

Stray animals that have not been properly settled threaten public health and safety. At present, 82 percent of the injuries caused by stray animals are caused by stray dogs and 12 percent by stray cats.

Aita's initiative is expected to bring together the force of charity groups and the online pet retail platforms to jointly improve the animal welfare, and draw more public attention to the welfare of stray animals.