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When it comes to animal protection, China’s government has instituted a raft of local regulations that in print could serve as a model for many nations. However, what’s in print isn’t always in practice.
Twenty-five years ago, in a tightly-controlled isolated China, there was no notion of or reference to animal welfare. Live animals were routinely fed to circus, safari park, and zoo carnivores. Taking care of animals was not only outside the realm of science; it was a menial job. Those who cared for pets, farm, and military animals trained incidentally as part of a vocational agricultural program and used home-grown approximations of anaesthetics for accidents or emergencies. Investigators could pack mice, monkeys, and other out-of-luck creatures into research labs, oblivious to experimental conditions.
Clearly the conception of animal sentience was as remote as the thought that a Chinese entrepreneur could partner with their government in a for-profit start up—which they can today. But all that began to change in 1978 when China opened diplomatic relations with the West and perforce joined western nations in being subject to animal welfare scrutiny. In the course of exchange, Chinese scientists quickly learned of veterinary medical training, western perspectives on animal welfare, and research protocols to keep animals from pain and suffering. One of China’s prominent scientists, who was practicing at the time, told us it was a dramatic assault, a shockwave of recognition not only that animals experience life but that bringing animal science to western standards would require a daunting sea change: it would mean working to understand, interpret, and practice unfamiliar ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving across a country of 1.34 billion people where eighty million of them are brutally poor and the ruling party stringently controls both behaviour and information flow.
Thanks to a confluence of trends including a growing market economy, since then external and Chinese animal protection groups have been able to establish a footing. They detail the offending practices graphically and also broadcast the message that China’s people didn’t realise the immeasurable scale of animal suffering inherent in common practice. With the bold support of China’s nationally prominent and local scientists, these animal protection groups have been working within China on two fronts: introducing the idea that animals feel pain and reinforcing the message that inflicting pain is tantamount to abuse. Furthermore welfare organisations have been teaching local groups to be proactive in supporting proposals for local regulation and national animal welfare law.
THE PRINT/PRACTICE GAP
In response to the work by welfare groups, the push by leading scientists for regulation, and, as a consequence of economic, social, and political evolution since the early 1980s, China’s central and provincial governments have posted local animal protection regulations which address some concerns of the animal protection groups including the 3Rs for research animals (Table 1).
Nonetheless, all is not well. By and large outside the major cities the regulations either aren’t implemented or aren’t enforced. However there is reason to believe this will change, though gradually. For, despite stringent rule by the Communist Party and control through censorship such as the Golden Shield Project—colloquially known as The Great Firewall of China—awareness of animal welfare ideas, practices, and protocols is opening out into the provinces as streams open out into rivers on the way to the sea. Furthermore, some trends in Europe and the USA will probably encourage the Chinese government to step up implementation and enforcement. Here are three among several compelling developments:
- European Union (EU) legislation has recognised animals as sentient beings.
- There is persuasive evidence that laboratory animal data is most reliable when animals express natural behaviour.
- Technicians will ensure animal wellbeing and object if research protocols don’t respect animal welfare.
Given these trends, it is reasonable to celebrate for the animals and also to speculate on the likelihood that western research costs would go up both in terms of money value and the rigour of protocols, making Chinese laboratories a good option for three reasons at least.