According to a draft released by the Beijing municipal
government on its website earlier this month, regulations for the
humane treatment and welfare of animals were to be prescribed for
the first time in the country's history.
But the draft was withdrawn on Wednesday, just four days later,
without any explanation. Sources within the city's Legal Affairs
Office said the draft had already been declared impractical by
experts, and there are no other plans for animal welfare
legislation within the next five years.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a
non-governmental organization, said it was sorry to hear about the
decision.
"More than 100 countries, including some developing countries in
Africa, have adopted laws against abusing animals, but China has
not," an IFAW statement said. "China has to legislate animal
welfare if the country's livestock husbandry wants to follow
international practices."
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has rules to ensure that
animals are treated humanely as they are raised, transported and
slaughtered. The export of animal products will be negatively
influenced if animal rights are violated.
IFAW disagrees with the experts who believe that although animal
welfare legislation is a good thing, it is not practical in a
still-developing nation such as China. IFAW officials believe that
the state of China's economy is far enough along to allow for the
rules.
Many Chinese legal experts, as well as members of the Beijing
Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference, are appealing for the drafting of a law on animal
welfare as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, a commentary published in the China Youth
Daily said it is reasonable and convincing for local Beijing
authorities to suspend animal rights legislation now.
"According to the draft, if an animal is to be killed for
financial gain, it should be sedated and slaughtered quickly. It
should be isolated to ensure that other animals cannot see the
killing procedure. But the regulation will be difficult to enforce
in real life," said Xi Xuchu.
"Most of the people slaughtering domestic animals for meat in
China now would violate the regulation. It will be difficult to
punish all of the people who do so, which is expected to be
many."
Xi concluded that pre-legislation practicality is wiser than
handing a lot of problems to law enforcement.
However, Xi did confirm that protecting animal rights is
beneficial.
"Although the regulation will not be published that soon, I
believe it will be adopted by authorities in the future," Xi
said.
The principles of the proposed animal welfare law were to ensure
freedom from thirst and hunger, pain and suffering, and fear and
sorrow.
China does not have a law to ensure animal welfare now.
A regulation concerning animals used in experiments is expected
to come under discussion soon.
(China Daily May 17, 2004)