Research And Thinking About Animal Protection Legislation In Our Country

As we advocate the harmony with nature, animal protection movement spreadsall over the world. Its core idea is to care animal welfare. More than100countries andregions in the world have developed Animal Protection Act or the Animal Welfare Act.However, the cruel treatment for animals was constantly repeated in our country. In2002, a student of Tsinghua University, Liu Haiyang poured sulfuric acid upon a bear.In2005, a graduate student of Fudan University cruelly killed a cat. In2006, a PekingUniversity student cadre cruelly killed a cat and a woman stepped upon a cat by herhigh heels. In2009, someone beat a dog in Hanzhong. In2010, someone skinnedraccoon alive. And recently,“Guizhentang” a pharmaceutical companies in FujianProvince, cut off the gall from a living bear. On every time’s cruel incident to animals,we can see media and public condemnation and reflection. However, this can notfundamentally curb the occurrence of animal abuse incident. The author believes thatthe imperfection of China’s animal protection legislation is the main reason for thefrequent occurrence of animal abuse. Therefore, we need to improve animalprotection legislation, by means of the rule of law to protect animals, and to curb thephenomenon of cruelty to animals.Chinese scholars have long voiced opinion on the introduction of AnimalProtection Act. Three years ago, Change Jiwen, research director in Chinese Academyof Social Sciences Research, and other domestic legal experts submitted China’s firstanimal protection law to the National People’s Congress. But the proposed draft hasnot been approved by the legislature. The Guizhentang incident again raises theconcern on animal protection legislation.Based on current national conditions, this paper aims at appealing to learn fromthe successful legislation of Western Animal Protection, hence to improve animalprotection legislation in our country and promote the harmonious developmentbetween man and nature. The author proposes some suggestions and recommendations on animal protection legislation in China, hoping to provide someuseful reference for the exploration of animal protection legislation and to give slightsupport to achieve ecological harmony and human long-term survival anddevelopment. The paper is mainly as follows:Introduction: It gives a brief summary of the background and intention of thepaper, and puts forward that China should improve animal protection legislation.Part I: It explains the content and significance of the Animal Protection Act.Firstly, the author defines the concept of animal protection, and clarifies therelationship of Animal Protection Act, Animal Welfare and animal rights. And thenfrom different perspectives, such as moral feelings, social civilization, biologicaldiversity protection, sustainable development and human survival and development, itdiscusses the great significance of Animal Protection Law.Part II: It combs the process of theory development and legislative process ofpractice for animal protection legislation. Scholars tend to think that it is firstly startedform Western countries, from the animal life protection and animal’s healthy state, toestablish animal protection legislation. So in this part, it mainly studies the theoreticaland legislative practice of animal protection legislation in Western countries, which isdivided into sections: section one analyze historical context of the Western animalprotection legislation, which can be classified into three stages: medieval Westernsympathy for animals, modern Western ideas on animal kindness and modern Westernanimal liberation theory. Section two introduces practice in Western countries’ animalprotection legislation.Part Ⅲ::It summarizes the current status and defects of China’s animalprotection legislation. China’s animal protection legislation is in its infancy, thelegislation is insufficient and rough, and the legal system is messy and loose; theprotection scope is narrow, the legislative concept falls behind and lackmaneuverability and other problems. Part Ⅳ: The author proposes some suggestions and recommendations on animalprotection legislation in China. Western countries’ animal protection legislation isrelatively mature and complete, hence can provide important reference for China’sanimal protection legislation, Firstly it defines the basic principles of animalprotection legislation:defining the purpose of the animal protection legislation,animals protection should be classified, the scope of application of the AnimalProtection Act should be consistent with national conditions, the participation ofnongovernmental animal protection organizations should be enhanced. Thencombined with the differences in animal conservation status of the various regions inChina, the author puts forward different degree of protection standards according tothe different types of animals.Conclusion: It emphasizes that animal protection legislation is what a moderncivilized country should do. However,The improvement of animal protectionlegislation in China is a gradual process.