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Animal welfare issues in China
Online Edition
LAST year, on Weibo, one of the largest social media platforms in China, a picture taken at the Yulin Dog Meat Festival provoked national debate.
It showed a butcher gripping a dog by the neck as he bargained with animal welfare activists who wanted to rescue the dog. They had either to pay his high asking price or watch the animal get slaughtered before their very eyes.
Netizens were outraged. Their denunciations were so vitriolic and widespread that Yulin ingloriously received global attention.
Heated as it may be, the public debate isn’t confined to Yulin.
In April 2011, a truck carrying 520 dogs was stopped by activists on the highway between Beijing and Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. The protesters demanded that the driver hand over the dogs to animal protection organizations.
Police were called but there was little they could do. The driver had all the proper quarantine and transport documentation for his cargo.
After 15 hours of stalemate, the Shangshan Animal Charity Foundation and Leepet, a pet service company, spent 115,000 yuan (US$18,526) to buy all the dogs.
In September of the same year, Zhejiang Province’s Jinhua Dog Meat Festival, an event dating back 600 years, was permanently cancelled after pictures of dog slaughtering appeared online.
The animal welfare issue isn’t confined to dogs.
In 2012, Fujian-based Guizhentang, known as Greetown, a traditional Chinese medicine company, sought to go public with a share sale. The offering was eventually postponed after boycotts related to the company’s use of bile extracted from living bears.
Cao Mingde, a professor with China University of Political Science and Law, said China needs to adopt animal protection laws similar to those in force in more than 100 countries around the world.
“The present law protects only endangered animals or those considered precious,” said Cao. “So the law actually endangers many other species. If they aren’t protected, they get slaughtered.”
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