Other major countries have animal protection laws. Why not China?

There’s a growing need for animal welfare legislation, as pet ownership becomes fashionable among urban, middle-class Chinese. An estimated 92 million dogs and cats are being kept as pets, but not all the owners know how to treat them

Lijia Zhang

Published: 1:00am, 5 Nov 2020

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In a gruesome video, a man pours a kettle of boiling water onto a caged cat, the animal howling desperately. What happened next is equally heartbreaking: the cat was rushed to a vet but couldn’t be saved. Nor could the four unborn kittens found inside it.

The footage, shot in a street in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, emerged on social media on October 19 and quickly went viral. Enraged netizens expressed shock, sadness and condemnation. The incident has also led to calls for legislation to protect animals.

The unnamed animal abuser said he was punishing a stray cat for eating his sausage. According to a statement released by his employer, a security services company, the man had been playing with his pet cat at the end of a working day when it scratched him and he reacted irrationally.

Amid the social media storm, he was sacked from his job and his employer donated 5,000 yuan (US$ 748) for the cat’s treatment.

For many, this isn’t enough. Surely there should be a more severe punishment for the loss of five lives. What kind of message does it send to potential animal abusers out there?

The video brought back uncomfortable memories of my childhood. I have a confession to make: I once abused animals. A tomboy, I used to catch toads with boys, put firecrackers in the amphibians’ mouths and light them. We would laugh our heads off as the toads were blown to bloody pieces. One day, my Buddhist grandma caught us. “Stop it,” she cried with tears in her eyes. “All animals are sentient. You’re committing a sin!”

A sin? No one taught us this at school. I regarded animals as a food source, and lesser beings. Yet, trusting my grandma, I stopped mistreating animals.

What China stands to gain from banning animal cruelty

In the Taoist and Buddhist traditions, people are urged to treat animals with kindness. However, in the Maoist era, keeping pets was denounced as bourgeois and forbidden. After China launched reforms, the country channelled its energies into economic development; animal welfare was not a priority.

In 2009, a group of legal scholars drafted a law to protect animals. It didn’t get anywhere, however, because some thought the government should not be putting animal welfare before human welfare.

More recently, some progress has been made. Cities such as Qingdao and Suzhou have regulations against cruelty to animals. But there’s no nationwide law yet, even though animal welfare has become an increasingly hot topic.

In fact, an animal protection movement has been gaining momentum, driven by educated urban youth. There are around 200 registered organisations advocating animal welfare and wildlife protection. But without a nationwide animal protection law, their work will remain challenging.

It is high time China dusted off the proposed law and discuss it at the National People’s Congress. There’s a growing need for such legislation, as pet ownership becomes fashionable among urban, middle-class Chinese. An estimated 92 million dogs and cats are being kept as pets in urban households, but not all the owners know how to treat them.

How can city let tower-plunge atrocity against 29 pets go unpunished?

In 2018, a dog and a cat died, after they were thrown out of a couple’s high-rise home in Chongqing. Reportedly, the husband did not want the pets around because his wife had become pregnant.

This may be an extreme example, but there are people – the cat abuser in Taiyuan among them – who feel they can do whatever they want to something they own.

04:08

Partners in crime: Dog in China helps girl keep a lookout so she can watch TV

Besides, the general population is ready for such legislation. According to a 2011 survey of 6,000 people, 81.6 per cent believed an animal welfare law was necessary. Currently, more than 70 jurisdictions in the world have animal cruelty laws. China is the only major industrial nation not to have one.

Apart from legislation, children need to be taught animal rights in school so they will grow up regarding animals –toads and all – as friends.

If any good can come out of the cat abuse case, perhaps it is to remind us of the need for an animal welfare law, and force us to ask some important questions. As an article on the web portal Sohu.com put it, “Is the death of a female cat by boiling water irrelevant to us?”

The author obviously thinks it is relevant to us, and I couldn’t agree more. Animals are also living beings that deserve to have rights. A humane society treats animals with kindness. China is a major player in the world. An animal protection law will do its image a lot of good.

Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory worker turned social commentator, and the author of a novel, Lotus

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