Animal rights advocates, veterinarians and academics meeting in Guangzhou over the weekend called for countrywide animal welfare laws.
The Guangzhou Companion Animal Symposium, organised by the Animals Asia Foundation of Hong Kong, brought together organisations and individuals from around the country to promote the drafting of national legislation to protect animals, particularly dogs and cats, because current legislation on the mainland only protects rare animals.
Symposium delegate Zhang Luping, of the Beijing Human and Animals Environmental Protection Education Centre, has been working for 10 years in animal welfare.
'Promoting legislation for animal protection is the most formidable task we are facing, but we have made headway in the past 10 years. This is at the local level,' she said.
John Wu, a Guangzhou vet and delegate, said: 'Obviously legislation is the ultimate thing we need, but that's probably a long way off. What is really needed is a change in people's attitude.'
He said owners needed to understand that they had to neuter their pets. 'A lot of people think desexing is cruel, but we have to educate them that it's a lot crueller in the end, when animals are abandoned.'
