Animal Cruelty
There are no laws against animal cruelty in China.
The only prohibition is against killing endangered species. Torture is not
even an issue. The following articles will give you an idea of the kind of
disregard the Chinese authorities have for animal welfare. After you have
read some of them, please sign our pledge book.
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Sir Paul McCartney says he will never perform in China after watching a secretly taped film
(see Video
and report from Swiss Animal Protection - very graphic) of animals being abused and killed for their fur. In one scene, shot in a fur market in Guangzhou, southern China, and due to be broadcast on the BBC's Six O'Clock News last night, workers throw cats into boiling water. The film was watched by Sir Paul and his wife, Heather, at a preview screening.
Sir Paul said yesterday: "I wouldn't dream of going over there to play, in the same way I wouldn't go to a country that supported apartheid. This is just disgusting. It's against every rule of humanity."
Video of Animal Cruelty
(Message placed in Pledge Book, 12 Oct 2005)
My message to President Hu
Jintao: When I watched this video (http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=jcruel_china_dog")
2 days ago I was horrified and have been haunted ever since. You can tell in the
video these people enjoy tormenting animals; what kind of people are you? Our
treatment of animals shows the true nature of the person that you are and
culture is not a boundary for this. We are all humans and the people in your
country need to get with the 21st century as they live and act like barbarians
and will one day have to answer for their cruelty to animals and children in
slave labor. If you are poor then don't have kids, simple as that, why you
continue to bring more people into your population if you have to resort to
animal and child abuse and cruelty. We don't want your fur trimmed clothing and
your cheap trinkets. Look deep into your heart and soul and do the right thing
and become civilized people.
Horrific slaughter of dog
in Beijing
I live in Beijing China, and have seen so many
disturbing and disgusting exaples of animal cruelty, once
witnessing the slaughter of a dog, in front of a dog meat restaurant, on
one of the busiest streets in town, on the sidewalk, with pedestrians
passing. The dog had been hung up, while alive i might add, by a hook
through it's chin. Legs tied together. In one swift motion a man stabbed
the dog in the neck and proceeded to slice the dog open all the way
down. An ocean of blood is the only way I could describe it. I had
to turn away, and tried to leave as fast as i could, but the sounds the
dog was making, the screaming, not a wail or a whimper, but screams,
almost human, definately unnatural, were audible down the street, even
as i tried to escape the sight, i was haunted by the sound. It was truly
one of the most inhumane things I've ever seen, and one of the most
traumatic.
Barbaric
Zoos in China - Boycott Chinese products
Animal Advocates Society
Message Board
Posted By: Jean
Date: Monday, 2 December 2002, at 8:12 p.m.
As Christmas approaches, I hope that we can make a statement
against the barbaric, stone-aged, animals in entertainment practices
(masked as zoos) in some countries, while at the same time having a
great time.
There are many fruits, like mandarin oranges, and so much general
merchandise imported from countries, like China and Korea, where
horrors are perpetrated on animals. I intend to boycott mandarin
oranges (if they come from these countries) and Chinese and Korean
merchandise in general.
I visited five zoos with the International Primate Protection
League http://ippl.org/>
when I went to a conference in Beijing, China in August 2002.
We were mainly checking on primate conditions (atrocious) and
looking into illegal trades. People were actually giving a lone,
demented chimpanzee in Beijing Zoo cigarettes to smoke, feeding him
trash and taunting him viciously. There seems to be a total disrespect
for the animals by zoo visitors.
Two of the most horrifying zoos were the Badeling Safari Park,
which lies in the shadow of the Great Wall, and the one in Guilin-
Xiongsheng Bear and Tiger Entertainment City. Both of them draw large
crowds, as they do live feedings. In Badeling, you're on a bus and
tourists pay to buy chickens to feed to the tigers and dogs.
Revolting. The chickens are thrown out of the bus window. In Guilin,
they are supposedly training tigers for a return to the wild, but none
have ever been released. They are fed live buffaloes to the great
delight of onlookers- in a twice-a-day spectacle, which goes on for
ages as the tigers are not skilled at dealing with prey.
You have to try anything to deal with these awful situations for
animals.
Warning - pictures of animals being attacked and consumed by
tigers.
Photos taken at Chinese zoos
Photos
taken at Chinese zoos
-
Activists
claim Chinese zoos abuse animals, Jan. 05, 2003
CHING-CHING NI, Posted
on Sun, Jan. 05, 2003, Associated Press, From
Bradenton
Herald
YULIN, China
- The brown bear used to weigh as much as 900 pounds. He could
easily chomp down 40 pounds of meat a day. Not anymore.
Since business at the private Yulin
Zoo soured a few years ago, the omnivore is lucky to see any kind of
food. Once a day, his keeper scrapes together leftover lunches from a
nearby children's martial arts school. When that's not available, all
the bear gets is porridge or cornmeal soup.
He has lost nearly half his body fat.
He growls and pounces on any prospect of food that the occasional
visitor tosses into his damp concrete cage - a dry sunflower seed, a raw
olive.
"We feed him whatever we can get,
just like a pig," said zoo manager Yang Yisheng.
Much has been made of China's record
on human rights. But little is known about the country's dismal
performance on animal rights. As the communist nation reaps the
financial benefits of capitalist economic reforms, captive animals have
become victims of the mad dash to get rich quick.
From the proliferation of poorly
managed private zoos to the horrors of legal bear-bile
"farming," entrepreneurs have reduced precious wildlife to
disposable sources of cash. Without adequate animal welfare legislation
and more public awareness, it's likely more animals will be starved or
worked to death.
"The big problem in China is
there are no general animal protection laws like we have in the
West," said Victor Watkins, director of wildlife at the
London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals. "There
seems to be no regulation of the zoos, no real awareness and no concern
for the welfare of animals."
That's not entirely true. China does
have a law that forbids the poaching and hunting of endangered species.
But it has no legislation to prevent cruelty and abuse against animals,
including those that may be endangered.
Even if government officials want to
help, they say their hands are tied.
"If you tell me animals are
starving, I can't do anything about it," said Liu Song, an official
responsible for zoos with the State Forestry Administration in Beijing,
which is charged with managing wildlife. "There is no law that says
we have to do anything about it."
Under China's government-controlled
economy, the state offered cradle-to-grave welfare for captive wildlife,
as it did for humans. There were only a handful of large zoos around the
country. The animals' well-being was relatively easy to guarantee. But
that was before the anything-goes market reforms swept the country two
decades ago.
Unlike in the West, China lacks
private foundations or nonprofit organizations capable of helping.
Horror
Chinese imports on sale in UK
Cuddly toy made
from dead dogs
EXCLUSIVE
By Adam Docherty
11th October 2002, Sunday Post
 |
| Mr Stevenson and one of the
toys |
THE
truth about this
life-like cuddly toy will shock animal lovers the length and breadth of
the country.
It was bought in Scotland and appears to be a cute kitten, curled up
asleep safe and sound in its wicker bed.
But this “kitten” is made from the fur of REAL dogs — farmed in
horrendous circumstances in China and slaughtered for their pelts.
Some are skinned before they are completely dead.
The horrific discovery was made by Scots MEP Struan Stevenson (pictured
left), who bought this particular toy from a souvenir shop in Shetland.
It was labelled “Made in China”. Small print on the reverse of the
label described it as an “animal by-product”.
We found similar items in a number of shops in Glasgow.
Souvenir shops
Mr Stevenson says this and similar toys are in gift and souvenir shops
around Britain and Europe. Ironically, they’re a firm favourite with
pet lovers unaware of their true origins.
Pelts
are often mislabelled, says Mr Stevenson, so retailers will innocently
stock them and customers have no idea what they’re really made of.
Identical toys, bought in Holland, were tested for DNA by the Academic
Medical Centre of Amsterdam.
Results proved conclusively that they were made of dog hair.
Mr Stevenson has been tirelessly campaigning for years to put an end to
the European market for the remains of dogs and cats farmed in China.
The USA has already banned the trade, following an 18-month undercover
investigation conducted by the Humane Society International in Communist
China.
They
documented the brutal lives and cruel deaths of more than two million
dogs and cats in Asia each year — killed solely for their skins.
Since then, Asian exporters have
turned to Europe as a market for their products.
As well as fur products, dog skins are also used as shoe leather or in
some dog chew toys — which means domestic pets may be eating the skins
of other dogs.
Richard Swain, the Humane Society’s undercover investigator and a
former Maryland police captain, said, “Make no mistake about it, this
fur is being sold throughout Europe. In China I have seen warehouses the
size of football fields piled to the ceiling with dog and cat fur
waiting to be exported to the West.”
Massive scale
Struan Stevenson continued, “This is the evidence I have been waiting
for. It confirms without a doubt that the appalling trade in cat and dog
fur has penetrated the European market on a massive scale.
“Since the USA banned all cat and dog products, Europe has become the
new dumping ground. Italy has banned cat and dog imports and it is about
time other EU member states followed suit.
“I will be writing to Commissioner David Byrne demanding he apply an
EU-wide ban on these products. I will be sending him the latest
scientific evidence as well as a copy of The Sunday Post to convince him
to act now.”
Cruelty
to bears
(from the website of the World
Society for the Protection of animals at http://www.wspa-international.org/action/bearfarming/bearbile1.html)
During 1999 and
2000, the World Society for the Protection of Animals
 |
Bile
seeps from a bear's abdomen at a farm in Heilongchiang Province |
conducted one of the
most comprehensive inspections of Chinese bear farms undertaken. The
investigation revealed how at farms across China, bears are surgically
mutilated and 'milked' each day for their gall bile. These animals
endure the most appalling levels of cruelty and neglect, and attempts to
improve standards at two government-monitored farms in China have not
alleviated even basic animal welfare problems.
WSPA's research also shows that bear farming continues to jeopardize
the survival of bears in the wild. In South East Asia, black bears are
captured and sold to bear farms, while the vigorous marketing of bear
bile products across the world has put a price on the head of every
living bear.
WSPA's research also
shows that bear farming continues to jeopardize the survival of bears in
the wild. In South East Asia, black bears are captured and sold to bear
farms, while the vigorous marketing of bear bile products across the
world has put a price on the head of every living bear.
For the past 3,000 years, Traditional Chinese Medicine
(TCM) has
prescribed derivatives of bear gall bile for medicinal purposes. Bear
bile contains an active constituent known as UrsoDeoxyCholic
 |
At
a farm in Heilongchiang Province, a constant stream of bile
drizzles from the opening in the stomach of an ailing bear,
splashing into a bowl beneath. When questioned, the owner
responded with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Don't worry yourself about that! We have so much bile
here we're practically swimming in it!" |
Acid (UDCA), which on ingestion is believed to reduce fever and
inflammation, protect the liver, improve eyesight and break down
gallstones. Over the last 20 years, the marketing of and resulting
demand for bile products has led to the introduction of the intensive
'farming' of these wild animals. There are now officially 247 bear farms
across China, housing an estimated total of 7,002 bears. While TCM
utilizes a total of 500 kg of bear bile every year, over 7,000 kg is now
being produced, with the majority feeding a demand for products such as
wines, tonics and eyedrops.
Recent developments show that the Chinese government still has
long-term plans for the bear farming industry. At the 3rd International
Symposium on the Trade in Bear Parts, which was organised by Traffic
East Asia in Seoul 1999, Chinese government representatives claimed that
some Chinese farms had reached internationally agreed standards as
captive breeding centres. This announcement signified their intention to
secure permission from the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) to trade bear bile products internationally.
| The
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was established by the United
Nations to regulate the trade in wildlife. The agreement came
into force in 1975, and to-date, 150 countries have signed the
treaty, including China. All bear species in South East Asia are
designated as Appendix I, which prohibits virtually all forms of
international trade in animals, body parts or products derived
from them. |
Cats, Dogs
and Facts About Fur
12/21/2002
from website of PetsHub, at http://petshub.com/animal_cruelty/cats_dogs_fur.php
Author E.D.
Cats,
Dogs, and Facts about Fur Every year two million dogs and cats are
tortured and slaughtered for their fur. China, the Phillippines, and
Thailand export their victims fur to the United States, France, Germany,
Italy, and other nations to be used in toys, gloves, and to trim coats.
Dogs and cats are skinned alive, suffocated, hanged, bludgeoned, clubbed,
or bled to death. How do these countries get by with the brutal murder of
these animals and profit from their suffering? Why do European countries
and the United States buy these dog and cat products?
One
of the most popular animal furs among the companion animals is the German
Shepherd's fur. The Shepherd's fur resembles coyote, raccoon, or fox.
These products are often given names such as Mongolia Dog Fur, Gae-wolf,
Gou-pee, China Wolf, Corsac Fox, Katzenfelle, Goyangi, and Mountain Cat to
keep unsuspecting consumers from knowing that they are purchasing dog and
cat fur.
The
Humane Society of the United States makes the following recommendations:
1.
Tell everyone you know about the dog and cat trade.
2.
Tell everyone you don't know about the dog and cat trade.
3.
Oder free "Dear Retailer" cards to hand to managers of stores
carrying fur products.
4.
Write department stores about discontinuing the sale of all fur in their
stores.
5.
Contact pet supply stores that sell real fur pet toys. Tell them about the
dog and cat fur trade.
6.
Write editors of fashion magazines that promote fur apparel. Tell them
about the dog and cat fur trade.
7.
Let pet supply stores know about the dog and cat fur trade and ask these
stores that sell real fur pet toys to stop.
8.
Ask stores that sell fur-covered and fur-trimmed decorations and toys to
remove these items, which may be made with dog and cat fur, from their
store.
9.
Write to the embassies of countries where dogs and cats are slaughtered
for their fur and skin (you can get the
address of your nearest Chinese
embassy/consulate at of
your nearest Chinese embassy/consulate at of your nearest Chinese
embassy/consulate at the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
People's Republic of China at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/2490/default.htm)
