Post Covid 19, China makes changes to animal laws

[Catherine]

China is drafting new legislation in a post Covid 19 world. Dogs will no longer be classified as livestock. This is a big change. It recognizes that dogs have a special relationship with humans. Changes are being made to the wildlife trade. All permits have been revoked. Now they just have to make the ban permanent.

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/covi...atory-push

This is very important. China still struggles with dog eating festivals and a dog meat trade. Reclassifying dogs as not live stock will change how they can be treated. Removing licences from the wildlife trade will discourage people from trying to sell endangered wildlife.

This could be a big break though for Chinese animal welfare.

[LPC]

This is one example of how, despite a lot of human suffering and death, good can come from terrible times.

[Catherine]

I think we have finally learned that our misuse of animals can have consequences. The people who are suffering now had nothing to do with the wildlife trade. That was the work of others, but our whole species is being effected by what they did. We need to globally rethink how we treat animals and how we treat the planet.
I expected the consequences of climate change to be our wake-up call. Covid 19 is more immediate and the results more drastic right now.

The changes China is making are the just the beginning of the things we need to do in the future.

[Tobi]

I think, generally with humans, lessons have to hit very very hard for them to be taken any notice of.

This is positive news...so far so good. It is a pity the world has to be so devastated by the plague resulting from consequences of twisted thinking when it comes to our treatment of animals. The origin was rumoured to be the wildlife meat trade. Let's also hope that new laws will be brought in  about that.

It is good news for meat trade dogs. Bless all those who have suffered so much over the years.

[Catherine]

I am hoping the dog meat trade will die out because of this. It is about time. Covid 19 originated in the wildlife market in Wuhan China.  It could have been any market anywhere selling wildlife as food. There are many viruses out there that could harm us, but normally we would never encounter them. We get into trouble when we cross the line into poaching endangered species and eating things that are not really what we should normally eat. Maybe its natures way of protecting the planet from us. When this is over we do need to go back into the world more carefully. The planet was never ours for the taking. It is ours to respect and cherish. That includes all the species on the planet.  If we don't respect them things can go horribly wrong for us.

[LPC]

(04-13-2020, 05:48 PM)Catherine Wrote: Maybe its natures way of protecting the planet from us. When this is over we do need to go back into the world more carefully. The planet was never ours for the taking. It is ours to respect and cherish. That includes all the species on the planet.  If we don't respect them things can go horribly wrong for us.

Very true! Wise words.

[Catherine]

It is like we overloaded a circuit and tripped a breaker(blew a fuse) and it will take some time to reset things. If we reset things exactly the same we will be right back in this mess over something else. We do have to make changes. Respecting the planet and its inhabitants needs to be our first step. Nature is taking over in our absence and we need to respect that.