Reflections on the Legislation of Animal Welfare in China under the Background of Building a Harmonious Society

Harmonious coexistence and coordinated development between human beings and animals is an important manifestation of the harmony between human beings and nature, as well as the inherent  requirement of building a harmonious society. Frequent animal abuse and unreasonable use of animals have become an important factor in triggering domestic social contradictions in China, and which is not conducive to the further presentation of national soft power at the international level. Based on the characteristics of effectively mediating moral disputes between human beings and animals, perfecting the market order of animal products consumption, and effectively responding to public opinion disputes at home and abroad, animal welfare legislation is the fundamental measures to solve the above problems.
Overall, the current legislation on animal protection in China is still unable to meet the realistic needs of animal welfare protection in the context of a harmonious society. Animal welfare legislation needs to be improved urgently, and the specific situation involves: The legislative system of animal protection is incomplete, lacking the basic law to protect animals in an all-round way, and the specialized legislation of animal protection is extremely limited, which makes it difficult to reach the animal category covered by the concept of animal welfare; The purpose of animal legislation is to pay attention to the rational development and safe use of animals, and the concept of animal welfare is generally lacking, which can not form the necessary pertinence, effectiveness and comprehensive system of animal welfare protection; Although animal welfare provisions are involved in some animal legislation, there is a general lack of substantive protection, especially the lack of substantive liability constraints, which can  not effectively suppress the phenomenon of damage to animal welfare in reality, and the legal  effectiveness is generally poor. 
Under the background of actively promoting the construction of a harmonious society and implementing  the strategy of governing the country according to law in China, it has become an important issue oncerning the stability of social order, the image of the country and the maintenance of interests to a certain extent to actively pay attention to and strive to promote the perfection of animal welfare legislation in China.Considering the insufficiency of current animal welfare legislation in China and the fact that domestic and foreign attention to animal welfare issues has gradually increased, active measures should be taken to improve China’s animal welfare legislation as soon as possible.First of all, the main reason for the anomie of the relationship between human beings and animals and the lack of consensus on the protection of animal welfare lies in the persistence of human-centered ethics and development concept. Therefore, the improvement of animal welfare legislation needs to deepen the education of animal ethics and physiological consciousness, expand the scope of citizens’ understanding of animal value, and create a positive social atmosphere for animal welfare legislation. Secondly, the imperfect animal protection legislation system, the narrow scope of animal protection and the lack of animal welfare legislation are the important reasons for the anomie of the relationship between animals and human beings. Therefore, animal protection legislation should be further improved in the light of expanding the scope of animal protection, integrating the concept of animal species protection and utilization with animal welfare protection, and following the principle of progressive legislation, so as to lay a legal foundation for the full implementation of animal welfare concept. Thirdly, the system is the collection of orderly relations between people. The construction of orderly relations between people and animals also needs to standardize effective management system, perfect animal traceability management system, scientific animal welfare standard system and strict animal welfare  security system.

Harmonious society, Animal welfare, Animal welfare legislation

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