Why does China have little respect for animals?

wow, don't know how so many ignorant people manage to become students........

Im guessing you wouldn't say people in wheelchairs are lazy or people with learning difficulties are stupid. but if its something you don't understand then it cant be real and your full of opinions on it.

what a load of ****

The world is hungry including Africa, I read about how they were so desperate they had to eat monkies http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2150033/African-scientists-warn-eating-monkeys-apes-cause-HIV-epidemic.html

African scientists warn that eating monkeys and apes could cause 'the next HIV'

[video="youtube;219fSVLX0DU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=219fSVLX0DU[/video]

You should all count yourself lucky that you have Tescos and reduce yourself to eating anything that moves.

Tl;dr (srs)

Yes there is battery farming (which is now banned in the EU - one of the few good things they have done), foie gras production, bullfighting and stuff that happens in the west but most people don't agree with these things either. So to people calling other people hypocrites for insulting China's lack of animal welfare, you're wrong, I don't like animal cruelty anywhere and I'm not saying whatever cruelty goes on elsewhere is acceptable anymore than China's, it's just that what goes on in China (seriously, look at the fur farms) is abhorrent and worse than what I've seen anywhere else, there is a particular lack of respect for animals that is quite clear and seems to be an attitude that would barely be acceptable in 18th century england (the time when we were getting rid of bear baiting etc)

People in Western countries who claim to be on the moral high ground need to really take a hard look at themselves first before pointing the blame on other countries. You take the fur farms as an example. Yes, they are atrocious but who do you think pays for the fur farms to be in operation and who buys the finished product thus still encouraging them? Does the fact that Western countries pay China to do the dirty work for them completely devoid them of the responsibility and blame? If someone pays a gunman to shoot someone are they not equally as guilty of the crime or are they excused because they are not directly involved in the murder?

If you had a family that have been starving for 20 days how far would you go to ensure their wellbeing? Often we forget how other countries are not so fortunate and how lucky we are to even get food on the table, or to skip the whole butchering process of meat and buy if off a shelf in a supermarket. Close down the factories in China and they'll no doubt spring up in other nations like Laos or Cambodia - anywhere the producers can get away with the poor laws.

You also say that there is an attitude that would barely be acceptable in the English 1700s. Forgive my poor memory of Key Stage 2 History, but that's industrial revolution, isn't it? Well guess what - China is going through that phase now. Note that they are still a developing country. Western countries were just as apathetic towards animals during their Industrial Revolutions. So yes, people are being hypocrites. And people making generalisations towards these attitudes thinking that everyone in China has the same attitudes towards animals are wrong. Animal rights activist groups in China - and yes, they do exist, people just have a lack of awareness of the development of China's youth - such as Animals Asia, China for Humane Society International, and the Chinese Animal Protection Network are already making a huge difference on behalf of animal rights.

It took the Western world how long to completely industrialise? China is doing that in more than half that speed. It took them 200-300 years since their revolution to get to the animal laws in place today. Be glad that social attitudes in China are changing in a faster rate. So yes, China does have a very very long way to go before animal rights reach Western levels, but you'd be an absolute fool to think that nothing is being done about animal rights, and that they aren't just as critical, if not more, of their own country's incidents.

"'Animal welfare' was a foreign term," Peter Li, who works in China for Humane Society International, told MSN News in an e-mail. "It is now a well-known concept in China."

"It’s not just young people motivating the changes. Animal rights in China has been endorsed by some of the country's best-known celebrities.
"Jackie Chan . . . has been speaking for tiger protection and against cruelty to farm bears," Li wrote. "Yao Ming . . . is a towering moral figure. He calls on the Chinese people to stay away from shark fin soup, from ivory products and bear bile products."

Source: http://news.msn.com/world/animal-welfare-activists-in-china-rise-up-against-cruelty

Further reading for the more open-minded animal activists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Animal_Protection_Network

Help sign the petition: http://forcechange.com/65725/encourage-animal-welfare-activists-in-china/

Ahh I know I agree with most of what you have said there, but it's because China don't care for animal welfare that they do the dirty work. As a country they haven't yet fully embraced the meaning of caring for animals. The people paying them to do it are just as bad but they are small groups of people, for example fur companies, it's not like all western people are paying all chinese people to be cruel on their behalf. I do agree there is hypocrisy but I don't like people saying it about the west as if everyone is just as bad. Yes many western companies don't care about animal cruelty and horrible stuff happens here too but compare the two countries and the general attitude is different.

I'm sorry I can't see your point about the industrial revolution AT ALL. Comparing the rate of change in welfare to the rate of industrialisation makes little sense. The two have little to do with each other, in fact animals were used quite cruelly to power machines etc in the industrial revolution and kinda still were in the past 50 years when you think of horses down in mines etc.. But the west developed not just industrially but culturally and it became less acceptable to treat animals badly. In that sense the west's attitude towards animals has changed hugely. BUT CHINA'S HASN'T in a world where we already have for some time. There view on the treatment of animals overall is medieval and they need to realise.

Food on the table doesn't mean being unnecessarily cruel to animals, as I say it's the general attitude needs to change so people learn what is acceptable.

I do agree with you and I can empathize and I have signed that petition, but west society on the whole is not hypocritical, china needs to catch up, 'cruelty' (actually look up that word) is never needed ever, ever. I don't agree with it anywhere ever to anyone or anything especially something completely innocent, it is sickeningly wrong and I fill we rage when I see people do it. I'm glad things are starting to change and this is in no way me saying 'all chinese people are cruel', but whatever western company pays china to perform cruelty is in no way representative of all western society and thus we are no hypocritical.

1) Just as you don't like Western people being branded as the same as the ones operating the fur companies I'm sure the Chinese as a whole don't like to be branded as the same as those who are cruel to animals - it's not like the get kicks out of being cruel.

2) I think the point is that China is still a developing nation. It has only been modernising in the last 30 years and came out of a harsh century of unfair treatment from the Western powers (Opium Wars etc), then a four decade long civil war and a Japanese occupation in the middle of it. It hasn't had much time to consider animal welfare - it's had other things to deal with. Whereas Western countries have enjoyed far better quality of living for the last century and I'm sure there is a correlation with quality of living and treatment of animals.

3) China is catching up - it's progressed so much in the past three decades and unfortunately animal welfare hasn't been the greatest of priorities and to be honest it still isn't. The hypocrisy I think stems from the fact that the West had the same cruel treatment in the past and there can be no argument that China has had the same time to develop.

This thread suffers from two groups who are logically and/or morally flawed.

Firstly, you have the group who are willing to condemn China as quickly as possible for its brutal, degrading and dehumanising treatment of animals. I have seen videos of the way animals are processed within China and on an emotional level it is incredibly upsetting. It is quite easy to pass a quick judgement and conclude that these people are disgusting, vile and downright detestable. By supposed Western standards they absolutely are all of those things. However, as has been raised in this thread, one cannot ignore the own abuses that occur within the Western world. Have you seen what occurs within British abattoirs? I would suggest that much of it is torture and violates the rights of animals. Before one casts judgement on the backwash that is China, one should also consider that we in the West are not as enlightened as we like to think. No doubt we are more developed and civilised in this respect, but we are far from perfect. We are still contemptible. We must remember that we went through the same processes when we were a developing country. Our treatment of children, of people and of animals was disgraceful. We have improved but we are far from perfect. These less developed countries are going through the same processes. What we in the West need to do is to help them develop in a way which is less damaging to the Earth and her inhabitants. We have learnt what we did to the Earth, we need to ensure the new developing countries can mitigate that damage. If that means we have to pull out our wallet, that is a pain we MUST endure.

The second group are those which are too quick to point out that the West has these failings and appear to do so in a way which dismisses the abuses which occur in China, on occasion, with glee. The Chinese, or more widely Asian, treatment of animals can, in some circumstances, become physically sickening. 'Torture and pain makes it taste better' - that is degrading and dehumanising. It belittles any advance we claim to have made as a species that this can occur without widespread condemnation. Yes the West have their failings and yes we need to do more... much much much more to improve the rights of both humans and animals in our countries, but to dismiss out of hand the abuses that occur in these countries because 'we aren't perfect' is tantamount to approval.

I imagine this post will get a significant amount of 'negative reputation' but nothing contained within is false. We in the West must make more of an effort to ban practices which amount to torture and seek to punish those who engage in these activities. Furthermore, we should take poor treatment of animals far more easily and seek to ban factory farming, caged chickens, painful slaughtering techniques and anything else which could logically be seen as torture or causing unnecessary harm and pain to an animal which can actually feel pain - I know there is some debate as to whether fish and lobsters can indeed feel pain and would not wish to comment on this particular example given my lack of expertise in this area. We need to do more. We cannot just lecture the less developed countries on their barbaric treatment when ours is hardly impressive. The world must do more. How else can we call ourselves an enlightened species?

Eating dogs is sick

People in Western countries who claim to be on the moral high ground need to really take a hard look at themselves first before pointing the blame on other countries. You take the fur farms as an example. Yes, they are atrocious but who do you think pays for the fur farms to be in operation and who buys the finished product thus still encouraging them? Does the fact that Western countries pay China to do the dirty work for them completely devoid them of the responsibility and blame? If someone pays a gunman to shoot someone are they not equally as guilty of the crime or are they excused because they are not directly involved in the murder?

If you had a family that have been starving for 20 days how far would you go to ensure their wellbeing? Often we forget how other countries are not so fortunate and how lucky we are to even get food on the table, or to skip the whole butchering process of meat and buy if off a shelf in a supermarket. Close down the factories in China and they'll no doubt spring up in other nations like Laos or Cambodia - anywhere the producers can get away with the poor laws.

You also say that there is an attitude that would barely be acceptable in the English 1700s. Forgive my poor memory of Key Stage 2 History, but that's industrial revolution, isn't it? Well guess what - China is going through that phase now. Note that they are still a developing country. Western countries were just as apathetic towards animals during their Industrial Revolutions. So yes, people are being hypocrites. And people making generalisations towards these attitudes thinking that everyone in China has the same attitudes towards animals are wrong. Animal rights activist groups in China - and yes, they do exist, people just have a lack of awareness of the development of China's youth - such as Animals Asia, China for Humane Society International, and the Chinese Animal Protection Network are already making a huge difference on behalf of animal rights.

It took the Western world how long to completely industrialise? China is doing that in more than half that speed. It took them 200-300 years since their revolution to get to the animal laws in place today. Be glad that social attitudes in China are changing in a faster rate. So yes, China does have a very very long way to go before animal rights reach Western levels, but you'd be an absolute fool to think that nothing is being done about animal rights, and that they aren't just as critical, if not more, of their own country's incidents.

"'Animal welfare' was a foreign term," Peter Li, who works in China for Humane Society International, told MSN News in an e-mail. "It is now a well-known concept in China."

They part-boil dogs alive in water to make them taste better for human consumption, their fur farms are shocking (apparently), and now they are using live turtles as keyrings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU1XGXMELyw

Of course, it is not just China. But I am talking specifically about China. When Morrissey blurted that the Chinese were a 'subspecies' for their cruel treatment of circus animals, he was branded a racist (not for the first time).

But live turtles as a keyring?! Surely, there is something stupid about that? My keys are always in my bag and they get knocked about. Imagine if that poor turtle was in my bag? It would be traumatised and probably crushed by bags of frozen veg, frozen chicken portions, and the odd pineapple.

Adding to this rather detailed post that appears a little more balanced, we should also consider the sheer geographical size and coverage of China. Its size and sheer popoulation size alone is magnitudes larger than the UK. In addition, the number of different cultures in there is vast - just look at the number of dialects (really, they sound like completely different languages and are often non-intelligable to eachother). My point is, one practice being carried out in one region is completely different from another. I get that for someone who grew up on a windswept rock (a very pretty rock, but still) who have experience no cuisine or even language or history other than their own can find it easy to judge the government who is trying to create policies for a nation of people as diverse as China. - Or are people still living with the "all Asians look the same" racial profiling in 2017? Might I remind people that China has also some of the most rapid and flexible political reforms in the history of the modern world, removing people from poverty at rates unprecedented. From a parallel look at westen and easten industrial revoluations, I have yet to see slavery become the centre of trade yet - the trade of humans, families, children for use in manual labor and even sex work. The fact that we found it so easy in our own past (not that long ago) to look upon other humans as currency seems a little humbling does it not?

The treatment of animals in China, from my own numerous visits, I have personally (sorry only anecdotal here) not ever seen it. Wanting to understand what I can of the culture, I have asked to try it or just to see it and instead received a range of dirty looks or the "um...I can have a look for you?" reply. From my own experiences, this sounds a whole lot like demonisation of about 1.4 billion people on the practices of a few tens of thousands, maybe even if it ran into the millions it'd only be 0.1 %. With all that said, I suppose the only exposure to the UK in the eyes of countries like China, are that we're all godforsaken football hooligans, pedophiles or that we must all be bald, fat and have bad teeth. Whilst perhaps true for a tiny part of the country, is all that they are exposed to. Perhaps people need to open their minds just a little bit more and understand that we don't know the whole story. Do some research and think. Look at the stats, look at the situation as a whole.

This is exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you for putting it such simple terms, especially about the industrialisation parts.

And deathhead thank you for emphasising and understanding the flip side, it's such a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other respondents of this thread. Yes, China still has a medieval view on the treatment of animals, but just as the West has realised this since the medieval era and changed, China will too. Remember China is not too far from their "medieval era" yet as the West are from their's.

It's also such a shame when you know such animal lovers in the East and they are lumped together with the cruel ones.