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HK Gov: Proposals to Enhance Animal Welfare

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  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    at what point have we as a society, figured it was a priority to have laws protecting animals, over laws protecting humans?
    In recent years I have come to wonder why or if humans have some kind of superiority over animals, but it seems to be a kind of normal standard that we need to take care of humans first. Regardless of what anyone thinks, the idea that we are superior and putting our own needs in the forefront have led us to some terrible lifestyles and ways that are now starting to hurt our own livelihoods (e.g. climate change). We've simply gone mad in our "taking" in ways that is cruel and harmful to so many other living beings, for whom we're discovering new things about their intelligence all the time. Things like, dumping our waste and plastics in the sea and killing whales and sea turtles senselessly. Catching marine mammals and pulling them from their deeply important families for the sake of our entertainment (hello, Chimelong). Using palm oil ubiquitously in food and household products when it destroys a rather precious ecosystem, including the homes of orangutans. But perhaps one of the clearest examples is how insects are dying and this is going to seriously affect our ability to grow food.

    I don't know what the human welfare laws are, but I think regardless if it is humans or animals, developing higher standards and greater sympathy for other living creatures will ultimately benefit us, too, not just the animals they're created for.

    I would maybe argue that humans at least have a voice (albeit many in abused situations don't or wouldn't dare use it) and some freedom of mobility. Animals locked in cages can do NOTHING but wait to die. Here at my home, I've had to live through kittens crying all night every night because they were locked in someone's garden in a cage. There are so many countless senseless abuses of animals I've seen in Hong Kong (particularly New Territories), it's refreshing to see the government doing something right. I think the "infrastructure" of genuine charities and volunteers is there in Hong Kong, and these laws would really help empower them to do the work they're waiting to do...
    shri, ppsam, hullexile and 2 others like this.

  2. #12

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    Agree. I was wondering though if you could have gone to your neighbors and asked them what are they doing with those poor kittens? If anything, could they have let you have them to find good homes for them or to a reputable animal shelter (if there is one in HK!). It would have really bothered me to hear those cries like that. I would have done something. Anything. Just my thoughts. I don’t know if you are Chinese or not but in living now in China and Hong Kong I keep seeing pretty much the same reaction towards animals. Not much respect. They don’t think animals have feelings. They don’t. They think humans are so much more important. That they mistreat the animals. Not right. At all. It’s a horrible way of thinking. It is. Again, they are truly the innocents. Animals. Not us humans. No way. We don’t deserve to be put on such a high pedestal. No.


  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by GlennBond:
    Agree. I was wondering though if you could have gone to your neighbors and asked them what are they doing with those poor kittens? If anything, could they have let you have them to find good homes for them or to a reputable animal shelter (if there is one in HK!). It would have really bothered me to hear those cries like that. I would have done something. Anything. Just my thoughts. I don’t know if you are Chinese or not but in living now in China and Hong Kong I keep seeing pretty much the same reaction towards animals. Not much respect. They don’t think animals have feelings. They don’t. They think humans are so much more important. That they mistreat the animals. Not right. At all. It’s a horrible way of thinking. It is. Again, they are truly the innocents. Animals. Not us humans. No way. We don’t deserve to be put on such a high pedestal. No.
    Of course I did everything I could. This was at a home where I had already convinced the man to let us take many kittens and TNR dozens of cats. I contacted the SPCA, but because they were locked behind a gate and in a closed-off, area no one could see, there wasn't much that could be done. I begged the man, I had other visit him, but these four he was not going to give up this time. I sometimes wonder if the cats are still there and he's keeping them in cages. These laws would really help in a situation like that and countless others.

    Like shri said, though, there are also many instances of humans not being well regarded. I find here it's a very family-centered culture, so those things outside of that tend to be neglected... Anyway, things are improving, I think.

  4. #14

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    Not to downplay the importance of it, but I wonder if utilitarianism (eg mitigating climate change) should be the impetus for animal welfare. To this mind, the pure and simple recognition that animals, including insects, are sentient creatures, capable of feeling pain or suffering and with the natural instinct to live and thrive, just as us humans, even if the former are not as intelligent, should be enough.

    Yes, pests need to be exterminated and animals encroaching on farmland need to be dealt with, etc etc. But perhaps what we require first and foremost is a tectonic shift in mindset: the understanding that all life forms share the same planet, and nothing exists in nature that is not of necessity. Hence, it behoves us as the one species capable of causing a sea change around us, to be more compassionate, and more creative in developing ways to coexist with other species. And whilst it is true that ultimately life depends on life, and therefore some 'loss' is also 'corollary' (such as in the case of pests), our driving principle ought to be 'to do the absolute minimal harm' to other living things and the environment at large... rather than 'we will because we can'.

    Still, better late than never. The proposals to enhance animal welfare in Hong Kong have been a long time coming. It is my small but fervent hope they will also spark larger thinking, mirroring back to us our attitudes towards other ‘categories’ of life, viewed in terms of age, socio-economic background, race, faith tradition… whatever. (A couple of commenters here have already asked, what about protection for the elderly, those in ‘caged homes’, and other ‘disadvantaged’ groups? Kudos.) Indeed, seeing universality whilst also recognising and accommodating diversity, both in the biosphere and the human realm, is a very fine art the importance of which can never be overestimated.


    PS For the record, I am a former meat-lover who has been a vegetarian for the greater part of my life to date. Not a rah-rah animal rights activist, but I also make every effort to patronise, as much as possible, vegan/vegetarian/cruelty-free products. After all, we are all part of the violence towards animals (and the environment) through the chain of supply-and-demand.

    Elegiaque likes this.

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by ppsam:
    Not to downplay the importance of it, but I wonder if utilitarianism (eg mitigating climate change) should be the impetus for animal welfare. To this mind, the pure and simple recognition that animals, including insects, are sentient creatures, capable of feeling pain or suffering and with the natural instinct to live and thrive, just as us humans, even if the former are not as intelligent, should be enough.
    Does pasture or intensive arable farming for high protein crops kill more sentient beings?






  6. #16

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    does the Hong Kong government have a proposal to enhance human welfare?


  7. #17

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    Deadline is tomorrow, July 31st. Takes only a couple of minutes to download .pdf feedback form, fill it out (with reader) and send it via email:

    https://www.pets.gov.hk/english/anim...l_Welfare.html