Why are there voices calling for animal welfare in modern society?

In recent years, the word "animal welfare" has appeared more and more in the media. Should people and animals be equal? Should humans meet the needs of animals to maintain basic life and health? When human beings satisfy their own interests, should they use laws to restrain themselves so as not to bring pain to animals? Should people who abuse farm animals, experimental animals, companion animals, working animals, recreational animals and wild animals be punished by law? These problems were clearly written into the law in Britain more than 80 years ago. Today, many countries in the world have also enacted clear laws to effectively protect animals from unnecessary harm. Nowadays, "animal welfare" has become a new issue that needs to be paid attention to in China's legal system construction. China's current animal protection laws are too narrow in scope, with many principled provisions and lack of operability. The history of human development is constantly moving from barbarism to civilization. Civilization is only a distant goal when we treat animals in a very uncivilized way with the same feelings of sadness and joy as we do. Someone feeds live cows to tigers in cages. This bloody predation scene is not the law of survival of the fittest in nature, and this feeding method is not desirable. The survey shows that children's understanding of animal protection is higher than that of adults, and children are more likely to accept humanized education methods. Once the bad idea of abusing animals at will takes root in a young mind, it is very difficult to arouse his love again and change the influence of violence on him. American criminologists' research shows that animal cruelty in childhood is closely related to adult crime. Animal welfare is also related to economic problems. China is a big agricultural country, and its agricultural products are exported more and more. The European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries have laws on animal welfare, and the rules of the World Trade Organization also have clear provisions on animal welfare. If meat animals are not carried out according to animal welfare standards in the process of feeding, transporting and slaughtering, the inspection indicators will go wrong and affect the export of meat food. This has already happened. Not long ago, meat imported from China was destroyed by the European Union for this reason. According to the news from the recently concluded international symposium on "International Animal Welfare and Legislation", the provisions on the welfare and trade of experimental animals will soon be written into relevant international laws and regulations. At present, many countries in the world have formulated relatively perfect animal welfare laws and regulations, and it is generally recognized internationally that animals have five freedoms: freedom from hunger and thirst; Freedom to enjoy a comfortable life; Free from the threat of pain, injury and disease; Enjoy a free life without fear and sadness; Enjoy the freedom to express your nature. Pigs, the world's largest farmed food animals, enjoy very detailed welfare benefits, such as: the right to breastfeed piglets for at least 13 days from birth; The right to own a pigsty covered with straw; Have the right to have soil for them to arch over. In addition, the pig truck must keep the transport vehicle clean, feed and supply water on time, and rest for 24 hours if the transport time exceeds 8 hours. Even before pigs are slaughtered, it is stipulated that they must be thoroughly cleaned; Must be slaughtered in isolation so that other pigs can't see it; To kill pigs quickly, you must use electric shock; Only after the pig is completely unconscious can it be bled for dissection. Germany has strict requirements for slaughtering animals, including that fish sellers cannot directly sell live fish to customers. After the customer chooses the fish, the merchant puts the fish in the electric box on the counter and slaughters it quickly before selling it. On the one hand, some customers dare not kill their own fish, on the other hand, they also prevent cruelty. The Animal Welfare Law of the United States has made very specific provisions on what kind of normal living environment people should give animals. American animal rights organizations also require global fast food chain companies to treat animals in a "kind" way and protect their due rights, otherwise they will call on people to refuse to buy their food. Faced with strong pressure, many catering giants have to put down their airs and listen to their opinions. For example, McDonald's has written to farmers who supply 65.438+0.5 billion eggs every year all over the world, asking them to improve the living environment of hens, and prohibiting methods of increasing egg production by "removing beaks" (that is, cutting off hens' mouths) and dieting hens. The current middle school biology textbook in China says, "Take a live frog, cut open its body cavity and see its internal structure ..." With the encouragement and guidance of the teacher, every student in the experimental class cut open a frog or rabbit alive with a knife to see the position of their internal organs, how their nerves beat, how their blood flows, how their muscles tremble and so on. Some experts suggest that this course be revised or even cancelled, so that students can understand how a living little life died painfully in their own hands. This is not to say that animals cannot be used for necessary experiments, but to oppose a large number of repeated and unnecessary animal experiments in reality. Some cruel animal experiments are not good for cultivating a beautiful mind. Last year, a newspaper reported that a young man in a certain place baked his pet cat in the microwave several times just because he was curious, which caused many serious burns on the kitten. When the kitten was sent to the hospital for rescue, even doctors were angry at this cruelty to animals. People rebuke this behavior which lacks basic humanitarian spirit, but no one delves into why this young man did it. What is the attitude of a person who is so cruel to pets towards people around him? When the students are encouraged by the teacher to dismember the rabbit alive in class, when the horse is thrown from the mountain again and again to death or blown to pieces in the war scenes of TV movies, and when the chef hits the wooden stick on the lively fish head in front of everyone, can we bear it? Unfortunately, many consumers are actually the last link to kill animals, and all the links together create the abnormal psychology of "microwave heating kittens". How a country's citizens treat animals is, to some extent, an important symbol to measure the degree of social civilization.