Beijing is considering inserting animal welfare into a number of legislations as the city revised regulations on animal epidemic prevention, which was released earlier this month.

The revision includes sections prohibiting abuse or abandon of animals.

Health and quarantine authorities staff will be responsible for animals found wandering and punishment of negligent owners, the new rules say.

The draft will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, the city's top legislative body, said Kong Fanrong, a department director at the Legal Affairs Office of the Beijing municipal government.

Kong is in charge of drafting the regulation.

Residents' advice and complaints are welcome from now until September when the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress will discuss the draft, Kong said.

If adopted, the regulation will possibly be the first ever on animal welfare, something experts have long called for.

A previous draft of the Beijing Regulation over Animal Epidemic Prevention touched on living conditions, medical treatment and conditions and time selection for transportation and killing.

The draft was withdrawn only four days after it was put forward.

Sources with the Legal Affairs Office of the municipal government said experts had shot down the draft and no new bill would be forthcoming within five years.

"In fact, we drew up drafts of the two regulations nearly at the same time," Kong said.

In the draft to the Beijing Regulation over Animal Health, a chapter deals with animal welfare, said the official.

"Later Beijing authorities believed that there was no law to back the local regulation. So it is not appropriate for releasing the local regulation," he said.

Kong said that while legislation over animal welfare is not included in the city's legislation plan, drawn by the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, for the future five years, a legal basis for the protection of animal rights is not totally out of the question.

"For example, we have successfully added the content to the current regulation on animal epidemic prevention in the latest revision," he said.

"In the local food safety regulation which will be drafted next year, we are considering a guarantee of animals' rights, such as forbidding water injections into animals before slaughtering them," Kong said.

Mang Ping, an animal welfare legislation expert, said it would be practical to insert animal welfare into relevant regulations before a special law comes out.

China does not have a law to ensure animal welfare and neither do many other countries. Instead, they insert makeshift amendments into existing regulations, she said.

The draft has been submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology for approval, sources said.

(China Daily  June 15, 2004)