China proposes law to ban eating cats and dogs
January 27th, 2010 by Key | Posted in News, Opinion | 56 Comments »China still does not have any animal cruelty law or animal protection law in place. Law makers are proposing a such law named “Anti-Animal Cruelty Law (experts suggested draft)”, currently is in motion and under review. However the draft proposed a ban on eating cats and dogs which is conflicting with the dog eating custom and culture at certain places in China…
From online.sh.cn: (source: Yangzi evening news)
The two meetings in Beijing this year, Beijing CPPCC members, Animal Protection Law Project Team Leader, the Chief of drafting experts and the law researcher of Academy of Social Sciences Chang Jiwen (常纪文) once again proposed legislation against animal cruelty. Chang Jiwen thinks that the banning of eating cats and dogs has already been publicly recognized in many places except for Guangdong province. However considering the number of national customs and habits of eating dog meat, the proposed draft suggests various provinces and cities to determine a fixed punishment measures system, it is not a rigidly uniformed ban.
How to effectively supervise and guarantee the effective implementation of animal cruelty law? He suggested that “It’s like anti-counterfeiting, anti-animal cruelty should also have corresponding law enforcement agencies and animal protection organizations. People can report by telephone calls and other means to monitor the crime of cruelty to animals.”
Because cats and dogs are more prone to resist human, they are tend to be more brutally murdered. From being captured to being locked up in crowed cages, their tails are cut off and not being fed. Because people believe the rumor of “freshly slaughtered cats and dogs taste better”, cats and dogs have been killed in many extremely cruel methods: While their throat is clamped by pliers, blows to their head by a stick; slitting their throat with a knife or piercing the abdomen with a knife; electrocution; strangling to death or being threw into boiled water; it’s too horrible to look at. Because there are no large-scale breeding of cats and dogs, the stolen cats and dogs often got on the dinner table before they are ever inspected for diseases.
“Refuse to eat cat”
From Netease:
Chongqing Evening News January 26 reports, during the suggestion gathering stage of China’s first “Animal Protection Law”, many citizens questioned the concept of “Animal Welfare”. Therefore experts decided to change the wording of the law, to draft an “Anti-Animal Cruelty Law” instead. The draft by the experts will be submitted to the relevant department in April.
Animal Protection Law Project Team Leader, the Chief of drafting experts and the law researcher of Academy of Social Sciences Chang Jiwen states during the 4 months of suggestion gathering of the “Animal Protection Law”, they have received over 300 emails and 400 phone calls, most of the views are more objective, but there are some people cannot accept the concept of “Animal Protection” and “Animal Welfare”. “They think the most importation thing currently is to first protect people’s welfare.” Professor Chang said.
Therefore the project team decided to change the wording to “Anti Animal Cruelty Law” instead. “Cruelty” means deliberately inflecting unnecessary suffering and pain, or cruelly killing of animals. The project team thinks that “anti-abuse” is more likely to be acceptable to the public. Currently the draft proposal has been mostly completed.
The most worth noting article is the “banning of eating cats and dogs” in this draft.
“Banning of eating cats and dogs will not impact the citizens that much, now with the abundant material life of current society, people who eat cats and dogs are minority.” Professor Chang said.
The “Anti-Animal Cruelty Law (experts suggested draft)” states, it is illegal to consume dogs, cats or selling dog meat and cat meat. The punishment is set to 5000 yuan or less fine and 15 days or less in jail. Any organization breaking the law is subject to 10,000 – 500,000 yuan fine.
Opposing views: From Xinhuan:
When the news of possible ban on eating cats and dogs came out, the community heavily discussed the news in particular, Pei County, Xuzhou, famous for their industry of breeding Meaty Dogs. Pei County has a very prosperous dog meat industry; their products are exported to Russia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and other countries. Meaty Dog industry employs approximately 100,000 people, with annual sales of nearly 1 billion yuan. If “Anti-Animal Cruelty Law (experts suggested draft)” really is implemented, it will undoubtedly have enormous impact to the local economy.
Pei County Meaty Dogs Breeding Association President, Dog Meat Processing Association vice president Fan Xiantao told the reporter, “Pei County dog meat” is Pei County’s famous dish, which uses high quality dog meat, coupled with clove, Chinese prickly ash, Amomum tsao-ko, Ginger, Amomum villosum, large fennel, small fennel and Chinese cinnamon etc spices, after simmering in a stew and finished with the draining of the soup and coloring.
…
In Nanjing, when people ask where you can find the best dog meat, many people will recommend you to go to Lishui Shijiao, yesterday when the news of Anti-Animal Cruelty Law broke out, Shijiao town blew up.
Last night 6 pm, reporter went to Lishui Shijiao town. “Did you come here to eat dog meat, or to buy dog meat?” Whenever the reporter asked for directions, the pedestrians always asked curiously. 8 pm at night, the old streets are full of busy restaurants. The reporter visited several restaurants and found that almost all of the tables had dog meat dishes on them. Dog meat is a indispensable dish of Shijiao restaurants.
…
“I am in the restaurant business for many years, if they really don’t let me sell dog meat anymore, I really have no way to stay in business, in the end I have to hang sheep head and sell dog meat.” (Hanging sheep head while selling dog meat is a pun of Chinese phrase for Posing)
…
Some inappropriate points of “banning eating cats and dogs”, a possibility of hype
In some animal experts’ views, this proposal draft is suspicious of being some kind of hype. Hongshang Zoo experts said, depends on what the purpose of animal protection is, for wild life protection is to maintain the eco system balance. So the animals in the zoo are playing this role for science and breeding. For dogs and cats, from the pure animal point of view, they should be as same as, and equal to sheep, if we were to protect them, then we should protect all of them which means all citizens should be vegetarians. Legislation should not be looking at “making eating cat meat and dog meat illegal” but to rescuer animals from abuse and abandonment, because abusing and abandoning pets are inhuman! Rather than banning eating cats and dogs, it is better to enforce people to be responsible pet owners
***
What do you think? should China ban on eating cats and dogs?
Tags: ban, cat, Dog, eating cats, eating dogs, Law, Policy
我反对吃猫狗。如果有表决，我支持建立动物保护法
但是，我希望法律的制定能够更民主一些。动物保护法不是作秀，我尊重多数人的选择
How come no one say anything about the cruelty on bulls in Spain. Bull fights -killing bull slowly is cruel. no one say anything about it. It’s so prejudice of westerners. Any country that westerners dislike they’ll say anything to tarnish them. What happened to “thou shall not judge other”? liars..liars liars.. hope your pant get on fire.
If you would have taken the time to read previous comments, you would have known that the comparison with bulls in spain has already been mentioned. Your comments only confirm my conclusion about some people relating this issue to nationalism.
Now I know why my dog always raises his leg at the brand new chinese gate, when we enter Chinatown The Hague. From now on, I’ll just let him do his business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Animals
Specie-ists!
to be honest I don’t care. Cats and dogs are animals, the only reason Western people get upset about that is because they have chosen culturally to designate them as “friends” in reality a pig is about as smart as a dog but we eat pigs all day long. That being said, I don’t think you should eat people’s pets, my… understanding is that most cats and dogs eaten in China are raised to be eaten, like chickens, cows, etc. I would think the only people eating pets are desperately poor. I remember the outcry when the World Cub was in Korea and Japan and some Europeans came crying over them eating dog meat…as if they have the right to go to another nation and tell people their culinary taste is superior, I think that is the definition of jingoism. French eat horses and snails for godsake…I do agree with the anti-cruelty piece though, if they can implement it, that will be problematic as the article implies at this point and time they don’t have the infrastructure.
agreed. some people think eating horse is bad, but many westerners indeed eat horse. everything is relative, and the true evil are those who try to change the other people’s beliefs.
“many westernes,, eat horse”???? Seems as if I have some catching up to do. I spent 32 years in various countries in Europe and I’ve never once seen or eaten horse meat nor talked to/heard about people eating it. Maybe it happens in some obscure corners of France or Greece,, you never know.
Horsemeat is available all over the world, not in the least in China:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat#Asia-Pacific
Horse meat is popular in Sweden–so my Swedish friends tell me.
I once a heard an old saying that the horse flesh is a little bit acid,is that really true.just a little curious about this.
Actually I’ve had some horse meat yesterday. Personally I wouldn’t buy it, but since it was offered to me and I kindly accepted. The taste is quite similar to beef, I would say it’s slightly more bitter and the structure is somewhat more tender. In most of Europe it’s commonly available, still besides in Italy and France it is not a very popular dish for economic as well as sentimental reasons. This sentiment may be false in the view of some, yet it is deeply rooted and wide spread – even in language. For example, in Dutch we make a clear linguistic distinction between the specific limbs of humans and animals. Yet for the noble horse, we make a grammatical exception: they have ‘legs’, just like we do…
i dont agree dog and cat should NOT be a meat!! they are family animals! fuck u china!!!
totally agree, different nations put happy friend faces with certain animals. This is both jingoism and discrimination!
If the people are not vegetarian who has the right to say what type of animals they are allowed to eat, if its about cruelty then surly there should be a law about animal cruelty that covers all animals, yet appreciates the position of the poor.
Chinese people. don’t give what you enjoy doing just because the west say so. Look at the rodeo. The western rodeos are the biggest animal cruelty in the world. They tortures animals for entertainments. Not only land creatures are torture in America, sea creatures are torutre too. You eat dog because it’s food. The western rodeos make lots of money torturing cows and horses. Who are the westerners to tell you what to do. When they themselves eat pigs, chicken and cows. These animals are intetllingent too.
Westerners who complained about animal cruelty in China are liars and blinded. They should be complaining about animal cruelty in their country. These are prejudice people who hate you cause the color of your skin. They can’t say that so they use what you don’t share in common with them to attack you.
Tell them to stop eat beef, chicken and pork. Tell them to stop torturing animal for entertainments.
I don’t think any animal should be eaten or used for our own consumption, but that’s just me. Banning eating cats and dogs is the right step towards the direction of the Chinese people being generally more conscious about animal welfare and treatment of living beings other than other humans. (actually, some of them don’t give a shit about other people either)
I know I like the cartoon of the cat! – http://digg.com/d31GmTs
I wouldn’t eat dog or cat myself…but I don’t see why it should be made illegal if eating other animals is not illegal.
about damn time. It’s disgusting.
Nice to see that, for all the talk out of Beijing about “evil Western influences” (i.e. Google), it appears that PETA has had an effect. Then again – what better way to convience an old guy that to stick some fresh young T&A in their faces?
fuck you all.
i eat your children.
and fuck your moms.
meow………..RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
hahahhahahaha stfu
chinese people eat what the fuck they want to eat, white people eat hot dogs, they eat dogs, black people eat catfish, they eat cats, so what
i seen them eating alligators in china, also seen them eating rice field mices,
and snakes, yea it is nasty, but to them its tasty, as long as their culture accepts it , let them eat what they want,
Eating animals is ridiculous…It serves no real purpose to the propagation of human life. Every nutrient found in flesh is also abundant in plant life. It is as daft as claiming rape is good for sex drive, and that consensual coitus is lacking the haecceity of libido spurring rape.
It is extremely wasteful, too. Consider the amount of resources invested in rearing a bovine until it has reached the culling age. Now consider all that ‘corn’, water, fuel and even the chemical resources required and how much food it actually produces.
If the whole world abstained from it’s edacious meat consumption, there would be no excuse for world hunger.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I would gladly eat human, out of spite…
i consider eating animals in the same league as having sex with animals. maybe eating them is worse in my opinion.
you must be sick if you think all the peoples around you better have sex with animals.
Chinese eat dog. Westerners f–k dog. hahahaha. no wonder they want Chinese to stop eating dogs. hahahhahah.
Enjoy having sex with plants.
sex? why would anyone do that? i fail to see the point.
I think eating dogs and cats is wrong because they evolved to be our companions. Would I eat them? No. Should other people choose to not eat them? I hope so. I prefer eating animals that are not intelligent: shrimp, lobster, fish, chicken, ducks.
A lot of humans are not intelligent; Many be should eat them?
since you dont like eating dogs, do you like eating some cream of sumyungai?
(cream of some young guy), hahahahahahahahahhaha
thats just a joke, dont take it to the head, hahahahhahaha okay
I think all men taste delicious but some are more evolved than others. A few of them are hardly able to connect emotionally with any mammals other than their own kind. Most of them are still carnivores out of habit rather than necessity. In spite of their so called intelligence they are in fact the most cruel, selfish and wasteful species on planet earth.
A law without good enforcement is no law. In China many people make a living in dog cultivation and dog meat business thus banning eating cats and dogs in the whole country is not practical – folks will ignore it and even act against it. China may have a minimum national law to regulate animal breeding and to punish animal abuse but giving special treatment to a certain specie, if it’s not endangered, is unreasonable. However, the minimum law should put focus on human health – preventing infectious disease in the process of breeding and slaughtering. However, in areas that have higher appeal, regional regulations can be set up to ban eating certain animals.
I understand the whole “China’s image” thing and I know how eating dogs/cats affects China negatively in the west, but, Chinese laws should only be introduced to serve its own people’s interest, and the law must put Chinese situations into first consideration. Think about this: a national no-dog-eating law is established, then there will more chengguan type clashes between enforcement teams and restaurant owners, demands of eating dogs in some areas will drive these restaurants to undergrand operation and the danger to public health will only be aggravated, and instead of one “Chinese eat dogs” report that appears in western media, you will see two, “Chinese government brutally represses its people in doing business” (but what business will be ignored) and “Undercover report: people are still eating dogs and Chinese law is a joke”.
many westerners haven’t try dog meat. just like Asian pu–y once they try it-all the dog will be gone from the dog pounds.
why cats and dogs? why you hypocrites eat pig and cow?
Great, now the militant vegetarian idiots rear their heads. Eat yourselves out of spite.
Very well worded post. You made an excellent point with hard hitting facts. Very cogent, indeed.
Well done. You get a gold star.
‘Go eat yourselves out of spite’ – that was too good. I cachinnated at that one. Superb.
It doesn’t have much to do with fighting cruelty. It’s Prohibition in the 21th century. It’s despotism dressed up as humanity.
I bet anything: 1. the consumption of what you call “pets” won’t drop significantly 2. local officials can make a lot of money out of this ban.
this commenting debate is wack, i like to eat prime rib, vegeterians like their freaking broccoli, chinamans like their cats and dogs
we are all happy and dont have to see each other
get over it
I have to mention you are brainwashed by western media. China is like an elephant. After touching the elephant, 10 blind people will tell you what China is in 10 different ways. China is much bigger than you guys think. Chinese history is not only loooooooooooong but also cooooooooooooooooomplex!
Some northern Chinese consider dog as their ancestor. So of course they will never eat dogs. In my hometown, people believe that one who eats cats will go to hell after he dies.
So in today’s China, I believe only very small portion of Chinese would eat dogs or cats. But I admit in some southern Chinese provinces like Guangdong, some people eat dogs and cats. But they do not specifically eat dogs and cats. Actually those people eat everything.
But I would say one is ill-minded if he claims Chinese eat dogs and cats just because he sees some news from western media filter. This is super stupid thing that I know in the world.
It’s definitely region-specific. Xuzhou (in northern Jiangsu) province is known for how they cook dog, but it’s seen as a seasonal dish–good for keeping the body warmer in winter. Guizhou province in particular is famous for dog meat. Dog meat restaurants are as common there as seafood restaurants are in, say, Jiangsu. Traveling there with my family visiting, last summer, was a little problematic for that reason. More problematic were the livestock trucks loaded down with caged dogs of the type raised for food.
However, I have eaten dog. The meat is quite tender and delicious. I can well understand why it would be considered a delicacy in some parts, and would gladly eat it again. Yes, I’m a Westerner; yes, my family has kept dogs as pets; and no, I don’t believe in importing food taboos from my own culture. Hindu Indians must see us as monsters for our massive consumption of beef, but how often do we hear them lecturing us about it?
As far as the law is concerned, I think there is an angle not being considered here. In all the hoopla caused by the fact that *some* Chinese, particularly in *some* parts of China like to eat dog, we lose the fact that other Chinese, particularly in some other parts of China would be just as disgusted by that as the average Westerner. My fiancee (who is Chinese), for example, would never touch dog meat.
So why does it not surprise me too much that a proposed ban originates from Beijing, which like USTCBBS mentions, is in an area not known for eating these sorts of animals?
I definitely agree that this particular meat industry, as well as every other meat or food industry, should be regulated. Vectors of disease and proper handling of the meat should be a priority. Excessive cruelty should also be a major concern. But banning the sale of two particular types of animal that are quite ubiquitous? Ridiculous. If anything, I’d rather the Chinese are eating domesticated house pets than endangered wild animals such as wawayu (Chinese giant salamander) or Chinese alligators.
fucking hell you go fuck yourself douchebag
and and eat ur fucking children, oh if u have any cos i dont think that u deserve to have one
China doesn’t have an anti cruelty towards animals law??? I know most people don’t care shaite about animals but at least I thought there WAS some kind of law in place.
Why are we debating the cat/dog thing when the important thing here is the law and if it’s going live?
The anti animal cruelty law is an “expert advisory draft” from China Academy of Social Science and Law, and must be reviewed by the legislative body. How much of it will become actual legislative draft remains to be seen.
Also, it does not ban dog/cat meat consumption, only regulation for humane treatment and sanitation for consumer. The academy did consider regional culture and tradition when drafting thie proposal.
Key, your translation of this passage isn’t right; it doesn’t say eating dog/cat is illegal.
违法食用犬、猫或者销售犬、猫肉，将对个人处5000元以下罚款并处15日以下拘留
should be
illegally eating or selling dog, cat, will garner fine of less than 5000 yuan and less than 15 days detention
Anyways, end of the netease article says this expert propsal is not moving foward due to objections received during public comment period.
Well its pretty clear 禁食猫狗肉 means banning of eating cats and dogs.
True, 违法食用犬、猫或者销售犬、猫肉，将对个人处5000元以下罚款并处15日以下拘留
means
illegally eating or selling dog, cat, will garner fine of less than 5000 yuan and less than 15 days detention
But all other articles and words indicates 禁食猫狗肉: means banning of eating cats and dogs.
As for the end of the article 暂缓制定“动物保护法” that’s animal protection law being prosponed from moving forward.
I mentioned eariler people objected that, so they had to changed the wording, to “Anti-Animal Cruelty Law” and proceeding with that.
Thanks for reading it carefully
Key, Prof. Chang has further clarified the expert proposal:
http://www.china.com.cn/news/txt/2010-01/27/content_19317766.htm
3．因为吃猫狗肉涉及一些民族和地方的传统和风俗问题，《动物保护法》（专家建议稿）采取了灵活的处理方法。那种认为完全禁止国民吃猫狗肉的理解是错误的。
Maybe he’s saying there’s no outright ban after the unfavorable feedback, to save face, who know.
Thanks for the additional info, haha, now they are modifying it, I guess banning eating cats and dogs just can’t fly with Chinese citizens.
However I think they are proposing a partial ban now
违反本法规定，在禁止屠宰、食用或者销售的区域内屠宰犬、猫，食用犬、猫或者销售犬、猫及其肉制品的，对个人处5000元以下罚款，并责令具结悔过；对单位和组织处1万元以上50万元以下罚款。
So there will be districts that you can’t kill, eat cats and dogs… or sell cat meat and dog meat…
BTW, “禁止屠宰、食用或者销售的区域” reads more like judicial districts can opt-in the dog/cat slaughter, sale, consumption ban, which is very reasonable IMHO. As you can see it’s more sane but less sensational if the whole truth is reported.
It’s possible the Chinese media, as all media do, sensationalizes issues. This provision could have been there all along, but who knows?
Why don’t you all people stop eating all those meats, and banned all animals killing, and instead eat your own babies!!! You people breed too many to overpopulate this world! God does not create you to destruct this earth. Animals have the right to live, go VEGAN!!! Duh. Save the environment, save being over polluted, think before you say. We are not meant to eat meat!
i agree what your saying
The way this issue is discussed reminds me of the phenomenon of bullfighting in Spain, which is also ‘region-specific’. In 2004, the Barcelona city council held a symbolic vote against bullfighting, but it still continues as of today. Several other towns in Spain have approved similar symbolic bans. On 18 of December 2009 the parliament of Catalonia approved by majority the preparation of a Law to ban bullfighting in Catalonia, as a response to a popular initiative against bullfighting that gathered more than 180,000 signatures. This has been strongly criticized mainly by Spanish media, relating this decision to nationalism and not to animal rights.
still so uncivilized. losers. suck it bitches. go back and suck ur dicks
I agree with the final point, there is no difference between eating any type of animal the question should be around animal welfare. why should dogs and cats lives be held above sheep, pigs and cows??
p;s i am a vegetarian, all life is sacred not just cats and dogs
Why? Because some are more gracious, loyal, playful, inventive, adaptive, responsive, protective, entertaining and domesticated than others perhaps. If none of these characteristics apply to you, I can see why you wouldn’t be able to tell difference between one or the other.
I occasionally eat beef, chicken, pork, and fish. Currently, I have no way of knowing but I would like to be reassured that the animal was treated decently while alive and killed quickly with a minimal amount of pain and fear. As humans, we can at least that for them.
Animals shouldn’t be beaten or kept in such crowded, unsanitary conditions before slaughtering them.
thats really sad… SAVE THE GOD DAMN KATTTTZZZ