Asian Economic News: China moves to revise regulations on animal welfare

BEIJING, May 27 Kyodo

China intends to include articles on animal welfare in the latest draft revision of a set of regulations on laboratory animals, which ban the abuse of animals and encourage ways to minimize their pain, official media reported Thursday.

The report comes just weeks after the Beijing municipal government released for public comment a draft law proscribing for the first time in the country's history rules for the treatment and welfare for animals being bred, transported and slaughtered.

But the municipality's draft law was withdrawn several days after its May 8 appearance without any explanation, drawing domestic and international criticism.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the draft revision of regulations on treatment of laboratory animals, which has already been submitted to China's Ministry of Sciences and Technology, is aimed at ensuring people conducting experiments take care of animals instead of abusing or unnecessarily harming them.

The revised regulations would also encourage the use of substitutes for animals in scientific research in an effort to avoid causing them unnecessary unease, pain and harm, so long as the results of the experiment are not affected, the report said.

He Zhengming, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Society of Laboratory Animals, was quoted as calling the draft revision the first step in the gradual improvement of animal welfare in China.

But he said it is premature for China to formulate an actual law devoted to animal welfare.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, a non-governmental organization, on May 19 called on the Beijing government to reconsider its withdrawal of the draft legislation that would have imposed fines for mistreatment of animals.

Noting in a statement that more than 100 countries, including some developing ones in Africa, have adopted laws against abusing animals, the IFAW said, ''The way a society treats its animals reflects the values of that society and its attitude toward all life.''

''The majority of China's population agrees that it is wrong to treat animals cruelly, to injure and abandon animals or to force animals to fight as a form of gambling. Despite outrage toward these types of behaviors, animals are increasingly abused within China. The lack of animal welfare laws means violators are still free from any legal punishment,'' it said.

According to the China Daily, sources within the city's Legal Affairs Office said the draft, which had been posted on the Beijing government's website, had been debunked as impractical by experts, and there were no other plans for animal welfare legislation within the next five years.

But it noted that many Chinese experts, especially legal experts, as well as members of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, have appealed for the drafting of a law on animal welfare as soon as possible.

A commentary published in the China Youth Daily reportedly argued it was reasonable for Beijing municipal authorities to suspend the animal rights legislation as it would be impractical now and causes too many problems for law enforcement.

''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,'' the commentary said.

''But the regulation would be difficult to enforce in real life...Most of the people slaughtering domestic animals for meat in China now would violate the regulation,'' it said.

The IFAW said that Beijing, as the host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, ''should have a pioneering standard for its moral construction and animal welfare legislation advances that need.''