A veterinary doctor and director of an animal shelter in Taiwan has reportedly committed suicide after she became distraught with the number of dogs she was having to euthanise.

Jian Zhicheng was the director of the Xinwu Animal Protection and Education Centre looking after animals at the shelter, the People's Daily Online reports.

She had allegedly become upset after animal rights activists had sent her threatening messages and even calling her a 'butcher with beauty' when it was revealed on a television programme the number of animals she had been forced to put to sleep.

Animal lover: Jian had worked at the centre for some years and was described as kind and caring

A caring and kind woman: She died in hospital on May 12 after being found unconscious at the centre

Hard working: She had been trying to get people to choose animal adoption instead of purchasing

According to Chinese media, she left a note, explaining how she had become too distressed with the fact that she had to put too many dogs to death.

However, Jian's last words have not been published in full.

Jian, who is reported to be 31 years old, worked at the state-run shelter for some years and was described as a kind-hearted and dedicated person by her colleagues.

She worked helping bring sick and stray animals back to health before helping find them a new home.

According to reports, she strived to help re-home the dogs and also tried to promote adoption instead of purchasing however she later revealed that she had been forced to euthanise 700 dogs in just two years.

She spoke of these figures during a news report in which animal rights activists called her a 'female butcher' in the comments section of the story.

Chinese media has reported that she became upset with the name-calling as many people did not understand that the animal shelter capacity is limited and they were struggling with increasing numbers of animals being abandoned.

She was put under pressure to provide a resolution.

Jian was found by police and her husband after having injected herself with the euthanasia drugs. She died in hospital a week later on May 12.

She appeared in a news broadcast where she revealed she had to put animals to sleep

Sad story: According to reports, the woman was distraught by the amount of dogs she had to put to sleep

Tragic story: She admitted that she had to euthanise 700 dogs in the space of two years

A member of staff from the Office of Animal Care and Control in Taoyuan confirmed to MailOnline that Jian Zhicheng used to work as the director at the Xinwu Animal Protection and Education centre.

They confirmed that Jian died on May 12 but couldn't confirm the cause of her death.

The told MailOnline: 'Public animal shelters are allowed to carry out mercy killings when they are running out of space, according to Taiwanese law.

'Since this is an animal shelter, it cannot refuse to take in stray animals, when there are more coming in than leaving, and in order to maintain the standard of the living quality of animals here, this is allowed.'

The Xinwu centre can hold 500 dogs and 100 cats at most.

At the moment, it has 410 dogs and 94 cats.

Elisa Allen, Associate Director of PETA told MailOnline: 'The reality is that there are simply not enough homes to go around for the millions of unwanted animals who are euthanised every year.

'It's left to shelter workers like Jian Zhicheng, who love animals so much, to do society's dirty work because so many people fail to do the one thing that could alleviate the animal overpopulation crisis: spraying and neutering animals.

'We offer our deepest condolences to Jian's family and urge all compassionate people to spay and neuter as well as always adopting companion animals from a shelter, rather than buying from a breeder.'