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In China, a widespread movement for animal rights arose only recently and without a strong level of state-based support, unlike the well-documented rise in Europe and North America. This movement has nonetheless become a vocal force for social change. Somewhat surprisingly, as other social movements have experienced increasing state-led resistance and pressure since 2012, the animal rights contingent has remained a vibrant part of the social landscape that mediates humans' relations with other animals. How have these agents been able to persist despite the greater political clampdown? We argue that the Covid-19 pandemic, first identified in China, has become a new resource for animal rights activists. These activists are working to leverage the growing fear of zoonotic contagion as a rationale for their work for dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations involved in the protection of animals have long indicated the need for changes in Chinese legislation, which, in their opinion, insufficiently protects the welfare of animals (both wild and farmed). This matter has recently been a subject of debate in China itself. Some Chinese scholars point out the negative aspects of the Chinese economic miracle, including the environmental degradation and bad situation and living conditions of livestock and wild animals. Postulates to improve the situation of animals, however, also have their opponents, and one of the more often cited critical arguments is the one about the "extraneousness" of the concept of animal rights and animal welfare in Chinese intellectual culture, and the imposing of "western values" on China. In the article, I verify the above statement by analyzing the most important Chinese philosophical systems: Taoism, Confucianism and the Chinese type of Buddhism, as well as the Chinese communist thought, in terms of their positions regarding the obligation of humans towards animals. I also analyze changes in the contemporary approach to animal protection and animal welfare, based on the example of the amendment to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses about animal rights and animal law reform in China, as well as how the country might actualize an ecological basis for protection of animals coherent with its evolving identity. Topics include the relevance of tradition to dog consumption in the country, the ecological motivations of three Chinese ethical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, and the push for national anti-cruelty law in the country.

What explains the persistence of what many in the West now consider a 'backward' or 'archaic' cultural practice: eating dog meat? How does such a tradition remain in place despite a widespread world outcry condemning it, especially in countries that are undergoing rapid processes of globalisation, such as China and South Korea? In this paper, we address these questions by exploring recent developments in the cultural practice of eating dog meat in South Korea. More specifically, we examine the South Korean case in light of globalisation theories that would largely predict the demise of such practices in response to external pressure brought by international organisations and NGOs seeking the expansion of universal standards and values such as 'progress', or in this case, 'animal rights'. While the spread of universal values and cultural homogenisation are central elements of much theorising on globalisation, the world polity perspective (Boli and Thomas, American Sociological Review, 62 (2), 171-190, 1997) also leaves room for the persistence of particularisms within the world polity. Amid strident debates over the consumption of dog meat coinciding with the 1988 Olympic Games and 2002 World Cup, the Korean government had to negotiate the demands of competing groups of NGOs that were split on the dog meat issue. These groups followed and articulated two different 'universal norms': animal rights and cultural rights, but in the end, it appears that the cultural rights side has been more influential in shaping the Korean polity with respect to dog meat policy. We rethink the world polity theory by emphasising the way in which isomorphism and decoupling processes may overlap and occur simultaneously. Based on our exploration of the Korean debate and its consequences, we term the existence of this hybrid of decoupling and isomorphism as 'tactful resistance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important step in ensuring ethical animal treatment and welfare is to understand people's attitudes toward them. However, research is lacking from some Asian countries, such as China. This needs improvement. In this study I asked Chinese university students about their attitudes toward animal welfare issues. The students reported strong concern for the treatment of animals across a broad spectrum of issues, although the level of concern varied according to the issue. The results are in agreement with recent research showing that Chinese society displays generally positive attitudes and behaviors toward animal welfare initiatives. This study, combined with previous work reported in the literature, suggests that the Chinese public is perhaps philosophically ready to accept and support the urgent changes needed to improve animal welfare standards in their country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Sustainable wildlife management (SWM), based on traditional practice supported with advances in scientific knowledge and evolving economic and social circumstances, has shaped the global approach to wildlife management and policy. In this paper, we report the findings of a large semi-structured questionnaire in China which investigated the attitude of the urban public toward sustainable wildlife management and wildlife conservation across a range of issues and identified the key socio-economic and demographic factor drivers for those attitudes. The survey was conducted from November 2018 to October 2020, across 15 cities randomly selected among China's seven administrative geographic regions. The survey was initially conducted through face-to-face interviews, but later, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was completed via online questionnaires. The results show that the public are broadly supportive of the theory of SWM, but their enthusiasm is issue- and context-dependent. For example, on issues of "Animal Welfare and Rights," "Wildlife Utilization and Captive Breeding," and "Trophy Hunting", the public demonstrate antagonistic views about SWM, demonstrating an affinity for "Compassionate Conservation". We also found that demographic characteristics of the public can significantly influence attitude, with those respondents who are not vegetarian or religious, who have higher levels of education, or are younger in age being more likely to appreciate the rational science approach of SWM. Our research suggests that conservation organisations may need to adapt their management aims and practices to avoid direct conflict with the rising tide of animal rights sentiment. Furthermore, significant investment will be required to promote science-based conservation in social marketing on all social media platforms to help educate and engage the public with the science behind conservation management. Sustainable wildlife management (SWM) is based on a synergy of traditional/local knowledge, advances in scientific knowledge, and fast-evolving economic and social circumstances. A widely accepted cornerstone of SWM globally is that conservation and utilization need to be effectively integrated, emphasizing the benefits humans can derive from biodiversity, thereby further encouraging people to protect and value wildlife though its management. However, with demand from biological resources growing at an unprecedented rate and the emergence of social media, conservationists must respond quickly to new challenges and conflicts associated with species management and public policy. For example, the rise of the "Compassionate Conservation" (CC) movement, fueled by social marketing and media, which promotes the welfare of individual animals, has introduced a set of challenges for conventional conservation management as it opposes most or all forms of wildlife utilization and hunting. CC advocates are increasingly influential at global and national policy levels; hence, it is imperative that conservationists are informed and aware of the future challenges from a rapidly changing global society. In this paper, we report the findings of a large semi-structured questionnaire in China which investigated the attitude of the urban public toward sustainable wildlife management (SWM) and wildlife conservation across a range of issues and identified the key socio-economic and demographic factor drivers for those attitudes. The survey was conducted from November 2018 to October 2020, across 15 cities randomly selected among China's seven administrative geographic regions. The survey was initially conducted through face-to-face interviews, but later, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was completed via online questionnaires. A Likert seven-point scale method was used to score the public's degree of agreement or disagreement for each question; a multivariate stepwise linear regression method was used to analyze whether the overall attitude of the respondents toward SWM and wildlife conservation was affected by their demographic characteristics; and a classification and regression tree (CART) was used to conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues with negative scores in the questionnaire, so as to understand how the respondents' demographic characteristics affected the public's attitude about such issues, which could supplement results obtained from the multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis. The results show that the public are broadly supportive of SWM, but only moderately so. On issues of "Animal Welfare and Rights," "Wildlife Utilization and Captive Breeding," and "Trophy Hunting", the core concerns of the "Compassionate Conservation" movement and the overall public view are more antagonistic to conventional SWM. We also find specific demographic characteristics significantly influence attitudes about SWM, with vegetarians, those with religious beliefs, and with lower educational standards demonstrating weaker support for SWM. For younger people, "Animal Welfare and Rights" is a special concern, hence, we identify this as a key issue to be addressed for SWM and conservation in the future. Our research suggests that conservation organisations may need to adapt their management aims and practices to avoid direct conflict with the rising tide of animal rights sentiment, especially among the young. Furthermore, significant investment will be required to promote science-based conservation in social marketing on all social media platforms to help educate and engage the public with the science behind conservation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article “Replacing Animal-based Remedies with Plants” in the July 2010 issue.

In the past few years, new social passions have sparked on the Chinese mainland. At the centre of these burgeoning passions is a focus on animal welfare, animal treatment, and even animal rights, by the public and academic sectors. With China's rapid economic changes and greater access to information from around the world, societal awareness of animal issues is rising very fast. Hastening this paradigm shift were several highly public incidents involving animal cruelty, including exposés on bear bile harvesting for traditional Chinese medicine, the thousands of dogs rescued from China's meat trade, and the call to boycott shark fin soup and bird nest soup. This article outlines the current status of campaigning by animal advocates in China (specifically the animal rights movement) from three interlinked perspectives: wildlife conservation, companion animal protection, and laboratory animal protection. By reviewing this campaigning, we attempt to present not only the political and social impact of the concept of animal rights, but also the perceptions of, and challenges to, animal rights activities in China., (2013 FRAME.)