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Ending cruelty in abatoirs is driven by economics, not kindness
By Lu Chuanzhong, Wang Yue and Liu Baosen |
September 11, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IT'S a slaughterhouse, but there's not much terrified squealing and struggling.
Bathed in melodious music and freshly showered, a row of pigs strolls towards their fate one by one. The are wearing special sound-muffling helmets and they are stunned with a two-second electric shock. They don't have time to feel fear or pain.
"We call this 'mercy killing'," said Liu Zhenli, manager of the meat department of the Longda Foodstuff Group Co Ltd in east China's Shandong Province, the country's largest exporter of prepared foods.
Longda's practice represents a growing trend in China's large-scale slaughterhouses where animal welfare is being given increasing attention. Welfare is usually interpreted as the right for animals to be free from thirst and hunger, discomfort, pain, injury, and disease; and freedom from fear and distress.
Chang Jiwen, a researcher with the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says he believes all practices beneficial to animals could be categorized as "animal welfare."
As China is the world's largest meat producer, humane slaughter is the "easiest and most direct" starting point to promote animal welfare, said Chang. He is a member of an expert team drawing up proposals for the forthcoming Animal Protection Law - the country's first comprehensive legislation to protect animals.
Meat export
As animal welfare is a relatively new idea in China, cruelty does happen from time to time during the delivery of pigs to abattoirs and in their slaughter, he said. "Animal welfare has become, in fact, a reason for some countries to restrict meat imports from China."
Last year, China's meat production was 72.7 million tons, accounting for 29 percent of global total output. Exports were only 742,000 tons, said Deng Fujiang, vice president of the China Meat Assn. As for pork, the country produced 46 million tons in 2008, nearly half of the world's total, but exported only 142,000 tons.
Zhang Yibin, an official with the Shandong Provincial Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said more than 100 countries have laws or regulations on animal welfare and World Trade Organization rules also contain relevant riders.
Because they do not meet animal welfare standards, China's meat products, except for rabbit and cooked poultry, are barred as exports to the European Union.
Although laws concerning animal welfare are yet to be issued, promotion of humane slaughter started in China two years ago. In February 2007, a humane slaughter program was jointly initiated by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Beijing Chaoyang-Anhua Animal Product Safety Research Institute (APSRI).
The project aimed to promote rules and standards for humane slaughter and teach workers how to carry them out. By the end of last month, more than 2,300 people from nearly 950 companies around China had received training in animal rights and humane slaughter, said project head Jia Zili.
Humane slaughter
Last year, "humane slaughter" was officially written into the Commerce Ministry's regulations on the killing of pigs, and a set of technical standards on their humane slaughter was issued in December, said Jia.
Chang Jiwen and six other legal experts are putting final touches to proposals for drafting of the country's first legislation on animal welfare - the China Animal Protection Law.
Their proposal will protect six categories of animals, those on farms, in laboratories, pets, working animals, animals for entertainment and wild animals.
He said it was not yet time for China to accept a more advanced version similar to those implemented in Western countries, as demonstrated by doubts voiced whether the legislation was realistic for China at this timet.
"It's different from Western laws. For example, we won't require keepers to give dogs shelters as most Chinese cannot afford that. Only people who unnecessarily and intentionally abuse animals will be punished."
Chang said at present most animals in China hardly enjoy all the freedoms animal welfare requires. "But I'm convinced - along with the enhancement of people's awareness of animal welfare - laws and regulations in this respect will become more sophisticated and complete."
Bathed in melodious music and freshly showered, a row of pigs strolls towards their fate one by one. The are wearing special sound-muffling helmets and they are stunned with a two-second electric shock. They don't have time to feel fear or pain.
"We call this 'mercy killing'," said Liu Zhenli, manager of the meat department of the Longda Foodstuff Group Co Ltd in east China's Shandong Province, the country's largest exporter of prepared foods.
Longda's practice represents a growing trend in China's large-scale slaughterhouses where animal welfare is being given increasing attention. Welfare is usually interpreted as the right for animals to be free from thirst and hunger, discomfort, pain, injury, and disease; and freedom from fear and distress.
Chang Jiwen, a researcher with the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says he believes all practices beneficial to animals could be categorized as "animal welfare."
As China is the world's largest meat producer, humane slaughter is the "easiest and most direct" starting point to promote animal welfare, said Chang. He is a member of an expert team drawing up proposals for the forthcoming Animal Protection Law - the country's first comprehensive legislation to protect animals.
Meat export
As animal welfare is a relatively new idea in China, cruelty does happen from time to time during the delivery of pigs to abattoirs and in their slaughter, he said. "Animal welfare has become, in fact, a reason for some countries to restrict meat imports from China."
Last year, China's meat production was 72.7 million tons, accounting for 29 percent of global total output. Exports were only 742,000 tons, said Deng Fujiang, vice president of the China Meat Assn. As for pork, the country produced 46 million tons in 2008, nearly half of the world's total, but exported only 142,000 tons.
Zhang Yibin, an official with the Shandong Provincial Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said more than 100 countries have laws or regulations on animal welfare and World Trade Organization rules also contain relevant riders.
Because they do not meet animal welfare standards, China's meat products, except for rabbit and cooked poultry, are barred as exports to the European Union.
Although laws concerning animal welfare are yet to be issued, promotion of humane slaughter started in China two years ago. In February 2007, a humane slaughter program was jointly initiated by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the Beijing Chaoyang-Anhua Animal Product Safety Research Institute (APSRI).
The project aimed to promote rules and standards for humane slaughter and teach workers how to carry them out. By the end of last month, more than 2,300 people from nearly 950 companies around China had received training in animal rights and humane slaughter, said project head Jia Zili.
Humane slaughter
Last year, "humane slaughter" was officially written into the Commerce Ministry's regulations on the killing of pigs, and a set of technical standards on their humane slaughter was issued in December, said Jia.
Chang Jiwen and six other legal experts are putting final touches to proposals for drafting of the country's first legislation on animal welfare - the China Animal Protection Law.
Their proposal will protect six categories of animals, those on farms, in laboratories, pets, working animals, animals for entertainment and wild animals.
He said it was not yet time for China to accept a more advanced version similar to those implemented in Western countries, as demonstrated by doubts voiced whether the legislation was realistic for China at this timet.
"It's different from Western laws. For example, we won't require keepers to give dogs shelters as most Chinese cannot afford that. Only people who unnecessarily and intentionally abuse animals will be punished."
Chang said at present most animals in China hardly enjoy all the freedoms animal welfare requires. "But I'm convinced - along with the enhancement of people's awareness of animal welfare - laws and regulations in this respect will become more sophisticated and complete."
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