Animal Welfare for Sustainable Development

Animal welfare, food safety and public health

In recent years, with the improvement of living standards, people require a higher standard of food quality and safety. However, the increasing number of food safety incidents like animal-related foot-and-mouth disease and the bird flu, as well as lean meat powder, water-injected meat and residue of veterinary drugs, have created panic and anxiety towards food safety.

In fact, all of the abovementioned problems are directly related to animal welfare. Xi Chunling, executive president of the Animal Welfare Cooperation Committee of the China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation said, "Animal welfare is actually the best immunity. Many animal welfare problems are caused by industrial farming, including bad feeding conditions, the abuse of antibiotics and cruel slaughter methods. These not only affect the health of animals and the quality of animal products, but also negatively impact the human health and environment. Therefore, it is imperative to improve animal welfare in order to realize the sustainable development of the breeding industry."

One world, one health. As an important part of animal welfare, animal health is an indispensable factor in the whole public health system. 70 percent of the presently known animal infectious diseases are zoonoses. Zoonoses not only threaten animal health and cause great losses within the breeding industry itself, but also threaten the health and life safety of mankind. Therefore, providing a clean and comfortable feeding environment with less pressure will contribute to improving the immunity of animals and reducing diseases and drug usage. From this regard, we are now better placed to provide that help; not just to animals, but also to ourselves.

As the advocator and practitioner of animal welfare, Zhao Zhonghua, country director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals China Office pointed out, Our work with animals starts with people. To change animals' lives, we must move people. We move people to change their attitudes. We should not treat animal welfare separately since it is an interdiscipline involving economy, ecology, ethics, public politics and other fields. We should make the efforts from different perspectives.

As an important step to deepen industry revolution and realize green and sustainable development, the promotion and popularization of animal welfare in China will play an important role in the sustainable development of the Chinese economy and environment, public health and the promotion of universal animal welfare.