574
and Safety of the People.” Time will tell.
11
On April 2, 2020, Chinese authorities
ordered a ban, to take effect one month later, on the eating of dogs and cats in at
least one city, Shenzhen. But across the vast reaches of China, at least ten million
other dogs and four million cats were likely slaughtered in 2020, often boiled alive.
At the same time, the grim torture of bears kept alive to perpetually drain them of
their bile for its supposedly medicinal ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid
12
(like kept
baby lambs for veal chops, geese, or ducks for Foie gras, an endless litany of other
tortures) continues. By June 2020, authorities in Beijing saw another tide of
Covid-19 outbreak, and shut down more animal markets whose many proprietors
had not yet followed the new rulings.
In a discussion with Dr. Peter J. Li, an Associate Professor of East Asian Politics
at the University of Houston-Downtown, and China Policy Specialist of Humane
Society International, back in late 2012, he described how the 1988 Wildlife
Protection Law (“WPL”), China’s most comprehensive such set of mandates, was
severely flawed in that it positioned “wildlife animals as ‘natural resources’ to be
used for human benefits. Local authorities and businesses have, however, chosen
to use the WPL as their bible to justify their business operations of wildlife
exploitation.”
13
Aside from the sheer horror such practices evince in most people, it is statistically unlikely that the majority of humanity, which continues its practices of meat
and fish consumption, would find these dietary standards at all reprehensible,
excepting those ethicists and other activists who write such papers as “The Moral
Standing Of Insects And The Ethics Of Extinction,” by Jeffrey A. Lockwood. In
this important essay of 1987 he posited that “The criterion of sentience which
includes concepts of pain, consciousness, thought, and awareness appears to provide an intuitively satisfying, empirically approachable, philosophical basis for
including a being in our moral considerations. Existing evidence indicates that
insects qualify as sentient and their lives ought to be included in moral deliberations.…” [and] “if there is a conflict in which all other interests are equal, an entity
with even infinitesimal moral significance may determine the right course of
action.”
14
Nearly 35 years ago, when Lockwood wrote this paper, it was in the midst of
an intense wave in animal behavior, biomedical ethics, and general philosophical
11 See WCSNewsroom, “WCS Statement and Analysis: On the Chinese Government’s Decision
Prohibiting Some Trade and Consumption of Wild Animals,” WCS News Release, New York,
cleId/13855/WCS-Statement-and-Analysis-On-the-Chinese-Governments-Decision-ProhibitingSome-Trade-and-Consumption-of-Wild-Animals.aspx.
12 See BBC NEWS, “Shenzhen becomes first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs,” 2 April
2020, n.a., https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52131940, Accessed April 2, 2020.
13 See “Animal Rights in China,” by M.C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, Forbes, November 2, 2012.
14 Florida Entomologist 70(1), March 1987, pp. 70, 73. https://journals.flvc.org/flaent/article/
view/58243/55922, Accessed April 1, 2020. See also, Insect Conservation Biology – Proceedings
of the Royal Entomological Society’s 23
rd Symposium, Edited by A. J. A. Stewart, T. R. New and
O. T. Lewis, CABI, London 2007.
60 Human Cruelty and SARS-CoV-2
and Safety of the People.” Time will tell.
11
On April 2, 2020, Chinese authorities
ordered a ban, to take effect one month later, on the eating of dogs and cats in at
least one city, Shenzhen. But across the vast reaches of China, at least ten million
other dogs and four million cats were likely slaughtered in 2020, often boiled alive.
At the same time, the grim torture of bears kept alive to perpetually drain them of
their bile for its supposedly medicinal ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid
12
(like kept
baby lambs for veal chops, geese, or ducks for Foie gras, an endless litany of other
tortures) continues. By June 2020, authorities in Beijing saw another tide of
Covid-19 outbreak, and shut down more animal markets whose many proprietors
had not yet followed the new rulings.
In a discussion with Dr. Peter J. Li, an Associate Professor of East Asian Politics
at the University of Houston-Downtown, and China Policy Specialist of Humane
Society International, back in late 2012, he described how the 1988 Wildlife
Protection Law (“WPL”), China’s most comprehensive such set of mandates, was
severely flawed in that it positioned “wildlife animals as ‘natural resources’ to be
used for human benefits. Local authorities and businesses have, however, chosen
to use the WPL as their bible to justify their business operations of wildlife
exploitation.”
13
Aside from the sheer horror such practices evince in most people, it is statistically unlikely that the majority of humanity, which continues its practices of meat
and fish consumption, would find these dietary standards at all reprehensible,
excepting those ethicists and other activists who write such papers as “The Moral
Standing Of Insects And The Ethics Of Extinction,” by Jeffrey A. Lockwood. In
this important essay of 1987 he posited that “The criterion of sentience which
includes concepts of pain, consciousness, thought, and awareness appears to provide an intuitively satisfying, empirically approachable, philosophical basis for
including a being in our moral considerations. Existing evidence indicates that
insects qualify as sentient and their lives ought to be included in moral deliberations.…” [and] “if there is a conflict in which all other interests are equal, an entity
with even infinitesimal moral significance may determine the right course of
action.”
14
Nearly 35 years ago, when Lockwood wrote this paper, it was in the midst of
an intense wave in animal behavior, biomedical ethics, and general philosophical
11 See WCSNewsroom, “WCS Statement and Analysis: On the Chinese Government’s Decision
Prohibiting Some Trade and Consumption of Wild Animals,” WCS News Release, New York,
cleId/13855/WCS-Statement-and-Analysis-On-the-Chinese-Governments-Decision-ProhibitingSome-Trade-and-Consumption-of-Wild-Animals.aspx.
12 See BBC NEWS, “Shenzhen becomes first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs,” 2 April
2020, n.a., https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52131940, Accessed April 2, 2020.
13 See “Animal Rights in China,” by M.C. Tobias and J. G. Morrison, Forbes, November 2, 2012.
14 Florida Entomologist 70(1), March 1987, pp. 70, 73. https://journals.flvc.org/flaent/article/
view/58243/55922, Accessed April 1, 2020. See also, Insect Conservation Biology – Proceedings
of the Royal Entomological Society’s 23
rd Symposium, Edited by A. J. A. Stewart, T. R. New and
O. T. Lewis, CABI, London 2007.
60 Human Cruelty and SARS-CoV-2