Just before I started typing this, I sighed deeply. Looking at the video astonishes me. A video showing cats and small dogs in a vending machine in China where there appears to be no one around to check on the animals which are confined to very cramped conditions. They are for sale in a vending machine as if they are inanimate objects like candy bars or cans of coke. Someone in China dreamt up this concept. And no one objected to it because there are no general animal welfare laws in China which would make this sort of animal abuse illegal.
In China the pet vending machine is entirely legal but to most of the rest of the world it is shockingly out of step with modern concepts of animal welfare and animal welfare laws. This idea would not get passed step one in the UK. In fact, no one would dream it up in the UK. It is too far-fetched and obvious animal abuse.
The pet vending machine goes beyond immorality and illegality in most developed countries; it goes to attitude. Its presence in some of Chin’s cities not only reflects a poor attitude to animal welfare it also cements an attitude of poor animal welfare. It reinforces the concept that animals are not sentient.
Only someone who regards animals as non-sentient and as inanimate objects could conceive of this kind of device.
According to reports from China there has been a backlash in some quarters, presumably by those who are more enlightened about animal welfare of which there is a growing number thanks, I believe, to the internet, which has educated millions on the sentience of animals and on better animal welfare including animal welfare laws.
I theorised in another article why there is this general lack of sensitivity to animals and how it originated in China and put it down to the country’s long history during which there were many years of poverty which engenders animal abuse and animals become objects to be used for survival. Either animals earn their keep to help with survival or they are killed and eaten. It is that basic.
This attitude has been handed down from one generation to the next and subsists to this day mostly in the elderly citizens of China as the youngsters are far more likely to adopt Western beliefs on animal welfare but still many do not. You can tell by the Yulin Dog Festival when young Chinese men kill dogs in the most heinous ways with great pleasure. And there are some terrible stories emerging from China of gangs of animal abusers perpetrating gross crimes against animals and uploading the video the internet as they are entirely protected under the law – lack of law I mean (see link below).
It is reported that the cats and dogs in these vending machines sometimes fall ill and there have been reports of deaths. I can’t verify that but it would not surprise me. As I said who is monitoring the vending machine? Does an engineer come around once a week to service it! 😢🐈⬛.
It is an extraordinary device which screams to the rest of world that this country has an attitude towards animals which is alien to most of rest of the planet.
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They also ship small animals, kitten and puppies in boxes and 1000’s die each years! And who can forget the live fish and turtles sealed in plastic to make key chains. Animals mean nothing to the State because they cannot earn points by praising their “Dear Leader”. Heck I’ve seen video’s where drivers run down people including children and keep driving. Life seems to mean so little to them. 1/3 of the worlds most endangered species is endangered because of China. Elephants for tusks, Rhino’s for horns, Pangolins for scales, Tigers for their bones and skins, black cats to cook and drink to ward off covid and even the lowly donkey could be extinct in Africa in 5 years for their skins. I could go on and on but why bother? China will never change till they kill everything but like the Tiger they’ll just breed it and kill it to make Tiger bone wine.
Yes, I have very similar thoughts to you Tamara about the relationship between people and animals in China. In general, the relationship is horrendous and a terrible stain on humanity. How the rest of the world allows it to continue is beyond me. That too is a bad reflection on humanity. There are some good things in China though vis a vis animal welfare such as animal advocates rescuing cats and dogs from lorries destined for the cat and dog meat markets but these are rare occurences.