Dear Ms. Gardner,
Thank you for
contacting PETA about helping animals in Asia. The abuses perpetrated
against animals throughout China are often incomprehensible. Animals
languish in substandard zoos all over the country, “entertainment”
parks where patrons can purchase live animals to feed to tigers
continue their clandestine operations, and dog and cat markets flourish
all over the region. Working against awful situations such as these is
not usually possible from a legal standpoint because,
for the most part, no penalties exist.
Based in Hong Kong,
PETA Asia-Pacific has a focus on China, with several employees who
constantly travel to cities such as Beijing, Jining, Nanjing, and
Shanghai to meet with government officials in order to
discuss ways of helping them treat animals more humanely. Many of
PETA’s victories across Asia have been achieved by working
with local governments—instead of against them—to cultivate
positive relationships with them that will benefit work for animals in
the future. The issues that they have discussed include implementing a
humane rabies control program; improving animal
shelters; passing legislation that would require all companion animals
to be vaccinated, sterilized, and registered; and how conditions for
animals in the fur industry and zoos can be improved. PETA Asia-Pacific
has also conducted investigations of Chinese
fur farms and markets that have documented the horrific and unregulated
slaughter of raccoons, rabbits, cats, and dogs.
In 2009, a
groundbreaking animal-protection law was introduced in China that
includes basic legal protection for wild animals, companion animals,
animals in laboratories, animals who are transported, animals
used for entertainment, and animals slaughtered for food. This
legislation is still pending, and PETA Asia-Pacific is working hard to
ensure that the highest possible animal welfare standards are included
in the law. To learn more about the law, please visit
http://www.PETA.org/b/
Please take a moment to write to the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to your country (http://www.embassyworld.com/
His Excellency Cui Tiankai
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
202-588-0032 (fax)
PETA Asia-Pacific has worked with popular Chinese celebrities, including Maggie Q (http://www.PETAAsiaPacific.
PETA Asia-Pacific also
sponsored an international symposium on animal welfare in Beijing, where
thousands of posters promoting humane rabies-control programs were
distributed. The posters were also sent to several
local governments in China and can now be seen in some of the biggest
cities in the country, including Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. PETA
Asia-Pacific will continue to offer these posters to local governments
in China in order to help educate people about
humane ways to resolve rabies outbreaks.
Grassroots work is
essential to the success of the animal rights movement, and PETA
Asia-Pacific works closely with local activists and groups throughout
China to protect animal rights, and
more than 200 Chinese activists attended PETA Asia-Pacific’s organizational meetings for activists in Shanghai and Beijing. Some of their efforts to further public education in the country include the creation of Chinese websites,
including an anti-fur site, http://www.81Fur.com, and a vegetarian resource site,
http://www.51Veg.com. They also have created several Chinese leaflets, which they distribute to local groups and activists free of charge.
To find out more about what you can do to help Chinese animals, please visit
http://www.PETAAsiaPacific.
Thanks for caring and for everything that you do to help animals!
Sincerely,
Jenni Wilson
Membership Correspondent
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