The first point to make in this discussion is that I should not criticise China as a Westerner in respect of its relationship with the domestic cat 😎😒. I wanted to call the relationship ‘unsophisticated’ for the reasons itemised below but I’ve been criticised by artificial intelligence for cultural and ethical hypocrisy and cultural imperialism in defining ethics! 😱 The point here is that people in the West can look at what they see as cat and dog abuse and cruelty in China and be disturbed by it. But are we hyprocritical?
Open abuses
Companion animal abuses have been starkly visible on the Internet on countless occasions such as during Covid when a cute pet dog was beaten to death in the woman’s apartment in front of her in order to stop the spread of the disease. Or the clear-out of street dogs and cats from Beijing during the Olympics when the stray dogs were simply beaten to death. Or the Yulin Dog Festival which is horrendous by Western standards. And then there’s the cat and dog meat industries in the south of China. I could go on but we have to look at these events through the prism of Chinese culture and current change, and do so with respect for that culture.
The West’s hidden animal cruelty
In the West, although modern societies pride themselves on animal welfare, they often compartmentalise animal cruelty. Factory farming for instance is rampant in many countries with sophisticated animal welfare laws leading to systematic abuse of animals on a massive scale. This raises the question as to whether modern society really is more sophisticated in its treatment of animals than the treatment of domestic cats within Chinese society. Is it that Western societies are better at obscuring animal cruelty behind layers of industrialisation and regulation!?
The point is that we should be careful in criticising animal abuse in China. I’ve learned that. I’ve become more sophisticated myself in assessing animal welfare in China.
However, in recognising the fact that in the West there is rampant animal cruelty on farms, there are at least extensive animal welfare laws which are simply non-existent in China. There is some animal welfare regulation in China to protect the quality of food but there are no general animal welfare laws, which indicates a cultural omission in my opinion.
So with respect, I would argue that the relationship between human and domestic cat in China is unsophisticated while also admitting that there is a lot of animal cruelty in developed Western countries as well.
So why can it be argued that the relationship between cat and human in China is unsophisticated? And what do I mean by unsophisticated? I mean less refined. Less-developed.
Animal welfare is absolute
There is a danger, I would argue, in qualifying one’s assessment of animal abuse in one country. If we say the reasons behind the animal abuse are cultural then we are qualifying it and in effect excusing it. But I would argue that animal welfare, and the other side of the coin, animal abuse, is an absolute notion. It’s black-and-white. You either do it or you don’t do it. It’s immoral in whatever context you place it. It cannot be qualified. This opens the door to fair criticism which is what I have done in the past. I’m being gentler in this article.
53 million stray cats
I’ll touch on the reasons why it is less-developed below but in the newspapers today there is a story about volunteers being overwhelmed in caring for millions of stray cats in China where it appears that often it is individual people, normally women, who feel compelled to care for stray cats. This is because there is a lack of shelters.
More importantly, a major driver to the large number of stray cats in China (at least 53 million apparently) is the fact that there appears to be a cultural objection to spaying and neutering domestic cats because it’s still considered unnatural by some. Comment: it is unnatural but sadly necessary as the lesser of two evils.
A lack of sterilisation certainly doesn’t help the unwanted cat problem in China. The reasons why Chinese people living in China abandon pet cats are the same reasons that people abandon them in America or any other Western country. They simply go off the idea of looking after a domestic cat. Or they have not budgeted properly. Or a relationship between two people has ended, or they are moving home. Ultimately it comes down to commitment to looking after a cat for the lifetime of the cat. Sometimes it’s missing. This occurs in the West as well.
Cultural Revolution
The big problem here is not sterilising domestic cats for cultural reasons. But I would argue, I hope plausibly, that the relationship between cat and human in China is less sophisticated generally than in say America and the reason for this is partly because in the early years of the People’s Republic of China pet ownership especially in urban areas was not widely accepted and was even discouraged. During that time there was a focus on eliminating bourgeois habits and luxuries which were seen as remnants of feudal or capitalist societies. Owning pets was seen as something only the wealthy could afford, contributing nothing to the collectivism vision. There was also a concern for public health and hygiene in crowded urban environments. Stray dogs in particular were associated with disease transmission. The idea of disease transmission is a major one in the West as well.
This era of shunning pets occured in the 1950s and into the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. Attitudes towards pets slowly began to change under economic reforms instigated by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s and 1980s.
My argument is that this era put everything back in terms of developing a sophisticated relationship with pets and so China is now emerging as a pet owning society with wealthier people looking to adopt a pet. And the wealthy middle classes in China are more aware of animal welfare issues. They are better educated and therefore more in tune I would argue with Western society’s attitudes towards cat and dog ownership. The internet has been the driver here, as it can be incredibly educational is used wisely.
Peter Li, an associate professor of East Asian politics in animal policy at the University of Houston said that stray animals were not just an issue specific to China. He is correct. Although he adds that China is the only industrialised country that doesn’t have an animal protection law.
Dr. Li, reminds us that China is approaching a high income status level and with economic progress he believes that there will soon be better treatment and protection of animals.
Ms Gao
One volunteer in China, Ms Gao, lives in a one or two-bedroom flat and she looks after a hundred stray cats in that apartment, effectively running her own mini-shelter with her own money which has left her $60,000 in debt. She says that she has spent more than 1 million yuan ($200,000) over the past 18 years caring for stray cats. She has taken the burden upon herself of running an animal shelter all alone. This goes back to the original statement that there needs to be more animal shelters in China and a proper animal shelter network and infrastructure, working together, to rehome and sterilise stray cats.
There also needs to be a greater network of volunteers running TNR programs in China I would argue. I am not preaching and I’m not being judgemental. I am being observational and providing my opinion. I want to avoid cultural imperialism as my AI chat bot tells me.
And you can imagine that cat rescue volunteers like Ms Gao are criticised by neighbours. You cannot run a shelter from an apartment or a residential house without being criticised by near neighbours because of the smell. These volunteers are heroes in terms of animal welfare but they are frowned upon by neighbours.
Ms Gao said that there is a lack of laws to facilitate fostering and adoption which hampers efforts to care for her cats. She says that sometimes it’s impossible to prove that she owns the stray cats (does she?) Because, she says, Chinese animal welfare laws are not sound. You need records like vaccination, purchase or micro-chipping to prove ownership and that doesn’t apply for rescue cats.
Survival
This reminds us that in the past, during difficult times in China, animals were seen as a means to survive. There is still I would argue this utilitarian relationship with domestic animals in China. They are there to serve the human and to improve survival. When they can’t do that they should be killed and eaten. It almost comes down to that kind of basic relationship. This perhaps has been carried forward to the present but is gradually being eroded by economic success in China. With economic success survival is easier and therefore companion animals can be just that, companions, and not be a utilitarian creature to be used and by Western standards abused.
Ms Yu
Another volunteer takes it upon herself to look after stray cats is Xiaohong Yu, a 45-year-old from Shenzhen in southern China. She looks after 30 cat in her home and an additional 20 in a rented cattery. All of her pocket money goes on cats. She has not bought a single new dress and she began looking after stray cats and 2019.
She said that she gets complaints from neighbours all the time about the smell mainly.
Hypocricy
I’ve been reminded by artificial intelligence about the “sheer hypocrisy of modern progress itself. We think of ourselves a sophisticated for prioritising animal welfare, but many of the products that support our “enlightened” lifestyle like smart phones, fast cars and cheap food come from systems that inflict massive harm on the environment and human beings. Can we really claim the moral high ground when these contradictions sit at the heart of modern, “developed” life?
So what’s more sophisticated: an older culture that wears its brutality openly [China], or a modern one that hides it behind layers of technology, bureaucracy, and moral posturing? The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. The point is that no culture holds a monopoly on sophistication or morality. Every society has evolved from its own particular challenges, and we shouldn’t be too quick to slap a label like “unsophisticated” on a culture simply because it hasn’t adopted modern-Western views on animals-or anything else for that matter.”
I understand the point. It’s a good point. But despite that good point, I would still argue that the relationship in China for cultural reasons between human and cat companion is unsophisticated compared to, for example, in the United States or the UK. That is not to ignore animal cruelty and abuse issues in both these countries.
Confucianism
One final cultural and historical context in this discussion would be a reference to the human-centred legal traditions in China. I’m referring to China’s legal and ethical traditions such as Confucianism which are more human-centred. The emphasis has traditionally been on social harmony, human relationships and obligations within society. Animals while recognised were often viewed through the lens of the utility to humans as food, labour, or pest controllers. I think we can add Confucianism to the way Chinese society and culture suppressed the development of animal shelters et cetera as mentioned.
The above should be seen in the context of China’s long history of dealing with poverty, war and survival which has prioritised human welfare over that of animals. It’s a pragmatic approach. This could explain why comprehensive animal rights legislation hasn’t been as much of a priority compared to countries with more sources. Things are changing as mentioned thanks to a burgeoning economy and rich middle classes.
Legislation can bring about change
Think about wearing seat belts. Before they were invented and became obligatory, nobody thought about them. There were more deaths. And when they were introduced and became mandatory, some people objected. It was fiddly and bothersome. But now we wear them automatically without question. The law can bring about change.
The same could be said about animal welfare in China. I would argue that it is beholden upon the Chinese government to introduce general, high-quality and enforceable animal welfare laws to their country which would speed up the cultural change taking place in China towards treating companion animals as genuine pets, protected by the law.
