Editor     2013年12月1日 21:24

As we build the well-off society in an all-around way and our country comes into the medium developed stage today, it is a big problem to have an eye on both economic development and the animal protection, the ecological protection, the sustainable development. It’s necessary for the Chinese mainland to start the animal protection legislation in full swing, as the animal protection is a major policy issue which has effects on the benefits in various respects.

A lot of people doubt whether China has its animal protection act. In fact, we were surprised to find that there are more than 3,000 laws, regulations and normative documents have something to do with the animal protection and related contents when we wrote the first Chinese “The White Book of China Legislation Construction on Animal Protection”. However, why is the animal protection situation in China is so grim?

The Present Situation of Animal Protection Legislation

Firstly, considering the original intention and purpose of all kinds of animal protection legislations, taking the wildlife conservation law as an example, its legislative purposes are to protect and save precious and endangered species of wild animals, to Protect, develop and reasonably use wildlife resources, and to keep ecological balance. But throughout the legal text, you will find the current wildlife protection laws more focus on the protection, development and rational utilization of wildlife resources. As the basic requirement for human survival and development and the social element, the ecological balance should be more reflected in wildlife conservation law, and become the legislative principle and objective. But in fact, the terms of the wild animal protection which the law involved in are already very few, and eliminated in various special utilizations generally. Therefore, the main content of   the law in fact is the wild animal using protection, rather than a real wild animal protection law. As a result, in the process of enforcement, the law is restricted from all sides, and can not really play a role.

It is easy to see that the culture ideas of traditional subject-object dualism and legislative value concept are deeply ingrained in the minds of legislators. They didn't take the animals as special objects with the value of life to treat and protect, but only took them as utilizable resources, meat products and private property. Therefore, the limitations of the existing animal protection legislation are obvious.

Secondly, another characteristic of China's current animal protection legislation is that there are kinds of special laws of animal protection, but there are not any basic laws of animal protection to guide all kinds of those special laws. There is a lack of regulations about the aims, the tasks, the protection targets, the range of application, the basic principles, the basic systems, the system of administrative control, the legal liabilities, and so on. The deficiency of the legislation leads to chaos and fragmentation of the laws. The different types of animal protection laws are scattered in the regulations of other departments. The legislative branches are different, and the administrative authority is not clear，making the problems of the multiple management and the absence of supervision.

Thirdly, most of the existing animal protection legislation’s legislative level is low, the legal effect is very limited, and without the regulation of the legal liability. So it is difficult to guarantee the effective implementation of the laws.

Fourthly, with the development of economy and society, the existing animal protection legislation is divorced from reality and lag behind, making the rules difficult to enforce and a lot of legal provisions exist in name only. It affects the authority of laws.

Finally, relevant departments have done a certain job in terms of law popularizing and law enforcement, but it is still not enough. Many of the Animal protection legislations are not familiar to the general public, sometimes the law enforcements are not very clear about the relevant laws and regulations, even misunderstand them.

The Challenges of protecting animals

China is the world's largest wildlife farming country. However, the cultivation of wildlife is considerably controversial. Taking the bear bile farming for example, despite we can hear the condemnation of it all over the world, but this industry still exists. What's even worse, some enterprises hope to expand the scale of farming by the means of listing. What makes this industry can withstand the worldwide condemnation and continue to exist? Its contribution to the local economy can tell us about it. Bear farming is an industry of nearly 10 billion RMB yuan output value, which makes contributions to some places with considerable taxes. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly live on the industry, which can provide a large number of jobs. In addition, most bear farming is in the mountainous and remote areas where the economic development is more backward compared with the coastal areas. Therefore, it is still conductive to lifting people out of poverty. But to ensure the employment and promote the rural economic development is the key problem that China's modernization construction should be solved. Local governments will instinctively choose the former between the local economic development and animal protection. As a result, the animal protection in China is lagging behind the economic development.

Of course, we recognize that the problems of animal protection in China are   much more serious and complicated than western developed countries. It has its inevitable economic and political background. But as we build the well-off society in an all-around way and our country comes into the medium developed stage today, it is a big problem to have an eye on both economic development and the animal protection, the ecological protection, the sustainable development. As a matter of course, it is extremely short-sighted behavior to sacrifice the environment for the GDP growth. To increase employment, tax revenue and GDP with the brutal cruelty to animals is also terribly wrong and do more harm than good. It’s necessary for the Chinese mainland to start the animal protection legislation in full swing, as the animal protection is a major policy issue which has effects on the benefits in various respects. We must resolutely eliminate individual extreme cruel animal industry as soon as possible, such as extracting bear bile, living feeding and so on. For other industries with cruelties to animals, before we stop them, it is necessary for the government to establish the mandatory and animal welfare-improved laws and regulations to reduce animal suffering, for the ascension of social morality, the encouragement of the conscience consumption of consumers and the integration with the world. And finally we can realize the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and the sustainable development, in order to achieve the ecological balance in the true sense.

By Sun Jiang & Li JianQiang, China Legal Daily:Urgent Need for Animal Protection Law, Nov. 6th, 2013

Translator:Carl Tu