China should ban the eating of dogs and cats completely to ‘restore its international image’, a scholar has urged.
The news came after a Chinese city drafted a law to forbid the consumption of the pets to improve food safety in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Guo Changgang, an academic from Shanghai, called for Beijing to set up legislation and impose the restriction across the country.
The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen this week drafted a law to forbid the consumption of dogs and cats to improve food safety in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak (file photo)
Animal activists have demanded the Chinese government take similar actions for years.
The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is one of the most controversial food festivals in China and sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals.
‘The consumption of dog meat and cat meat has never been a social custom that is “widely accepted by the people”,’ claimed Mr Guo, the head of the History Research Centre of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
He acknowledged the government’s efforts to crack down on the wildlife trade to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But he hoped that national lawmakers could extend the protection to cover companion animals.
The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is one of the most controversial food festivals in China and sees thousands of dogs cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches before being eaten by the locals. The picture shows butchered dogs at a stall in Yulin on June 21, 2018
‘Eating wild animals, dog meat and cat meat is one of the important elements that damage China’s international image,’ he wrote yesterday on news app Toutiao.
His remarks followed a proposed ban from Shenzhen, a city of 13 million in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
Regional lawmakers on Tuesday drafted a law to bar dog, snake, frog and turtle meat from residents’ dinner table.
Their proposal allowed residents to eat nine types of livestock – pigs, cows, sheep, donkeys, rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons – as well as aquatic animals permitted by law.
Shenzhen officials are currently waiting for feedback from the public before signing the directive into law.
Guo Changgang (pictured), the head of the History Research Centre of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences said China should establish a relevant law to protect companion animals
At least 2,809 people have died and some 82,500 have contracted the coronavirus globally
Mr Guo is a long-time animal rights advocate.
He said last year that China should establish a relevant law to protect companion animals, especially pet dogs, as soon as possible.
He submitted the proposal to the central government last March during Two Sessions, the most important political gathering of the country.
Mr Guo, who was a local representative at the meeting, said pet dogs were friends to mankind and were loyal to their owners – whether the owners are normal residents, police officers or rescuers.
‘Therefore pet dogs are not ordinary animals, livestock or assets, but creatures capable of giving strong emotional support,’ the scholar argued.
International animal rights activists have also expressed their support for the potential ban in Shenzhen.
People eat dog meat at a restaurant in Yulin on June 21, 2017. Each year, thousands of dogs are cruelly killed, skinned and cooked with blow-torches during the festival on summer solstice
Puppies are seen in a cage at a dog meat market in Yulin on June 21, 2017. The Chinese city of Shenzhen has proposed legislation to prohibit all residents from consuming dog meat
Charity group Humane Society International said it welcomed the city’s planned policy.
Peter Li, the group’s China Policy Specialist told MailOnline: ‘Although the trade in Shenzhen is fairly small compared with the rest of the province, Shenzhen is still a huge city bigger than Wuhan so this would be very significant and could even have a domino effect with other cities following.
‘Already in Yulin where the notorious dog meat festival is held, most dog slaughter operations have temporarily shut down in the last two months because no dogs are allowed to be transported across provincial boundaries.
‘Although World Health Organization advice is clear that dogs and cats pose no known coronavirus threat whatsoever, it’s no surprise that attention is turning to this trade at this time because as well as causing immense cruelty to our companion animals, the dog meat trade undoubtedly poses a huge human health risk for other diseases such as rabies.’
Experts from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved that humans caught the virus from animals at the Huanan Seafood Wholesales Market (pictured)
China passed new legislation this week to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals. In the file photo above, a man looks at caged civet cats in a wildlife market in Guangzhou on January 4, 2004. The cat-like creatures triggered the SARS outbreak in 2003
China’s top legislative committee on Monday passed new legislation to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals.
Beijing is yet to revise its wild animal protection law, but the passage of the proposal was ‘essential’ and ‘urgent’ in helping the country win its war against the epidemic, wrote state newspaper People’s Daily.
The exact source of the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, remains unconfirmed. Scientists speculate that it originated in bats, snakes, pangolins, or some other animal.
In China alone, the health crisis has claimed at least 2,744 lives and infected more than 78,400 people.
And globally, at least 2,809 people have died and more than 82,500 have contracted the disease.
Experts from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said tests proved that humans caught the virus from animals at the Huanan Seafood Wholesales Market.
Conservationists have accused China of tolerating a shadowy trade in exotic animals for food or use in traditional medicines whose efficacy is not confirmed by science.