Problems on the Enforcement Judicature and Legal Supervision of Animal Welfare Laws

Song Wei

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Sujets

• Problem
• Coming into force
• Prévôté
• Legall de Kermeur
• Welfare

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• Publié par: erevistas
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

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REDVET. Revista electrónica de Veterinaria 1695-7504
2007 Volumen VIII Número 12B

REDVET Rev. electrón. vet. http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet
Vol. VIII, Nº 12B, Diciembre/2007– http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B.html

Problems on the Enforcement Judicature and Legal
Supervision of Animal Welfare Laws

Song Wei : Professor and Lawyer Law Institute Univ. of Science and
Technology of China No96 Jinzhai Road, Hefei, 230026 CHINATel:
86-551-3953570 Fax:[phone] Email: [e-mail]

REDVET: 2007, Vol. VIII Nº 12B
Recibido: 17.04.06 Referencia: BA019 Aceptado: 02.05.06 Publicado: 01.12.07
Este artículo está disponible en http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B.html
concretamente en http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B/BA019
REDVET® Revista Electrónica de Veterinaria está editada por Veterinaria Organización®. Se autoriza
la difusión y reenvío siempre que enlace con Veterinaria.org® http://www.veterinaria.org y con
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Along with the economic development and social progress, the idea of animal
protection has gone deep into people’s hearts all over the world. Animal protection
includes not only reserving species resources and nursing the diversification of
creatures, but also animal health care and welfare. Compared with some other
countries, there exists severe imperfection on legislation for animal protection,
and the related legal system is nearly left blank. In view of such unfavorable state
and the rising appeal for animal protection, it is an inevitable trend to enact China
Animal Welfare Laws. Since the final purpose of legislation has to be reached
through the enforcement and realization of the law, there involve the problems on
the enforcement, judicature and legal supervision of China Animal Welfare Laws.

The enforcement means carrying out laws. It has two meanings: one in a broad
and the other in a narrow sense. The enforcement mentioned in this article is in its
narrow sense---the activity of carrying out laws performed by national executive
office and its public employees according to legal powers and procedure (executive
enforcement). The judicature is also called the application of laws. It refers to the
special activity of national judicatory offices applying laws to specific cases
according to legal powers and procedure. It can be judged from their meanings
Problems on the Enforcement Judicature and Lega1l Supervision of Animal Welfare Laws
http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B/BA019 REDVET. Revista electrónica de Veterinaria 1695-7504
2007 Volumen VIII Número 12B

that the enforcement of Animal Welfare Laws is mainly carried out by executive
offices, while the judicature is by the court.

The clarification on the concept of enforcement is the premise and prerequisite for
the lawman to carry out laws. Compared with other laws, Animal Welfare Laws is
characterized by its close connection to science and technology, noticeable feature
of bi-disciplinary science and obvious moral nature, so it contains many
conceptions difficult to grasp. As far as the concept of “welfare” is concerned, it
involves several words like health, happiness and coziness. The difficulty in
understanding welfare lies in the definition of the three adjectives, for they are all
about subjective feelings of which each person has different criteria. Different
classification of the concerned objects may bring about great distinction on the
understanding of the concept. Another example, although it can be given a
definition in the law to which behavior belongs to “cruelty” or “animal
maltreatment” (behavior that causes unnecessary pain), the enforcement in
reality is often subjective. There are lots of such examples. If the executor cannot
make clear of those concepts, it will definitely influence the efficiency and effect of
enforcement.

The person executes a law should also clearly know the procedure of enforcement,
on the basis of clarification on concerned concepts. The enforcement of Animal
Welfare Laws belongs to executive enforcement that has two major links: one is to
ascertain the existence of an illegal fact, i.e. clear facts and accurate adjudication;
the other is the legal procedure. To my mind, the key point of the former is to
strengthen the propaganda of the law to make every citizen be aware of the
existence of Animal Welfare Laws, because animals cannot think as man does, nor
can they express the pain through language. If the whole society lacks the idea of
Animal Welfare Laws, the illegal commitment will not be investigated and dealt
with in time, which thereby brings great difficulty in adjudicating. On the contrary,
if the idea of Animal Welfare Laws goes deep into people’s hearts, then the illegal
commitment can hardly escape the denouncement of the others. It will also be
investigated and handled in time, and be adjudicated accurately. Besides these,
there leaves problems on the procedure. Article 31 in chapter Ⅴin Executive Penalty
Laws of People’s Republic of China, stipulates that the executive office should
inform the person concerned the fact, reason and basis of the decision of executive
penalty, and also notify his legal rights before the penalty is put into effect. If the
executor emphasizes only to inform the person concerned the fact, reason and
Problems on the Enforcement Judicature and Lega2l Supervision of Animal Welfare Laws
http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B/BA019 REDVET. Revista electrónica de Veterinaria 1695-7504
2007 Volumen VIII Número 12B

basis of the decision, but neglects to notify his legal rights, it is an incorrect
procedure. Once the lawsuit enters the stage of reconsideration or litigation, it is
very likely to lose.

Although Animal Welfare Laws is aimed to “serve the animals”, the most work of its
enforcement is to make contact with people, so it is the prerequisite for smooth
enforcement to gain the respect of the public first. On account of that, strict
attitude is needed in the course of implementation. In my opinion, it should include
following aspects: 1. Civil enforcement---the executor should be polite, and should
not show arrogance or rebuke the person concerned. 2. Clear understanding of the
status of executing staff---it should be made clear that only the commitment of
professional executing staff or the unit and individual authorized by the
government according to the rules in Animal Welfare Laws can be called enforcing
public affair. Unauthorized zoologists or law workers have no right to enforce a law.
3. Neat appearance---the executing staff should normally keep strict requirement
to the appearance. For example, female staff should not be wearing long hair hung
over the shoulder, or heavily made up; the male staff should not wear long hair and
mustache, and have to be neatly dressed. Any staff cannot execute a law after
drinking.

There still exist many problems on the enforcement of Animal Welfare Laws.
What’s more, the executive offices have some deficiency unfavorable to protect
animal welfare, such as, the slow reflect, the underestimate on the severity of
some trivial animal abusing events, and so on. To my mind, the most effective way
to solve the above problems is to set up special sections of animal welfare in the
government on each level, and select professionally trained executive staff to form
the enforcing team. Furthermore, the section should be closely connected to the
public, positively listen to public opinions and warmly deal with the complaining.
Thus the enforcement of China Animal Welfare Laws will have a fine beginning.
The specific problem on the judicature of Animal Welfare Laws involves the
collection of evidence which includes material evidence, witness, documental
evidence and legal clauses. There is normally no difficulty in collecting the last two
kinds. The problem mainly exists in the collecting of material evidence and witness.
Material evidence includes abused animals, animal product against Animal Welfare
Laws, and other attached material, such as, poisonous and harmful medicine,
hunting equipment and some tools used to transport or kill animals. Some material
is hard to reserve intact, such as, meat products, dead animals and so on, so it
would be better to record first with auxiliary facilities like a camera. The time and
Problems on the Enforcement Judicature and Lega3l Supervision of Animal Welfare Laws
http://www.veterinaria.org/revistas/redvet/n121207B/BA019 REDVET. Revista electrónica de Veterinaria 1695-7504
2007 Volumen VIII Número 12B

location should be accurately recorded, with the collateral evidence and markers,
and also the signature of witness and the person concerned. In a word, all proof
connected to the material evidence should be collected. Witness includes the
behavior of the person involved in the case---the person, his testimony (written
record), and so on. The written record will