Editorials

From: Animal People January/February 1999

How to help animals in China

	ANIMAL PEOPLE has received many heartfelt appeals for a boycott of all goods from China and/or all tourism to China, in response to the recent Humane Society of the U.S. disclosures pertaining to the use of dog and cat fur by some Chinese garment makers, whose customers include U.S. retailers.
Photograph courtesy TAARF.
The dog and cat fur traffic was overdue for exposure, HSUS is to be commended for doing it, and expressions of outrage are also in order. But a broad boycott of China would be unfair, ineffective, and self-defeating. The dog and cat fur traffic is not uniquely Chinese; neither is China the largest supplier. The largest supplier, our files indicate, is Russia, along with other nations formerly belonging to the USSR, where animals killed by city pounds have been pelted and the pelts sold since Czarist times. As ANIMAL PEOPLE has reported, the killing and pelting is often done by prisoners. The proceeds underwrite both the animal control agencies, such as they are, and the prisons. Neither have ever approached internationally accepted humane standards. Most other nations of Europe, both east and west, are also involved, or have recently been involved, along with many other nations in Asia. On June 1, 1988, the Editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE personally delivered a 300-page report to HSUS, commissioned by HSUS, which in reviewing the entire economic structure of the fur industry, documented the sale of dog and cat pelts by the fur trade in England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. In the U.S., the dogs and cats were “accidentally” killed by trappers; their pelts auctioned along with those of many other species. In the other nations, animal control agencies were the pelt suppliers. Circa Thanksgiving, 1988, we supplied this same information to 18 other organizations which were conducting anti-fur campaigns. None chose, at that time, to act upon it. Since that time, information has surfaced pertaining to the involvement of many other nations in producing and selling dog and cat fur––notably, the nations of Asia where dogs and cats are commonly eaten, including not only China but also Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, parts of the Philippines, and parts of Thailand. Dog and cat fur produced in these nations is a byproduct of the meat industry. The horrific killing methods depicted by the HSUS undercover video, now widely aired on television, reflect ethnic beliefs about the value of eating meat saturated by the hormones secreted by animals who are in fear and pain. In fairness, it must be noted that as result of work by the International Fund for Animals and other organizations, eating dogs and cats is officially discouraged in South Korea and the Philippines. Further, it is practiced only by certain ethnic minorities in the Philippines and Thailand. In Thailand, in particular, dog-eating is viewed with revulsion by the Buddhist majority. Even in China, the People’s Daily has recently criticized people who eat animals not commonly regarded as “meat animals” by the rest of the world. So long as meat is eaten––no matter what animal is the victim––animals will suffer. But meat-eating will best be discouraged, in China and elsewhere, by giving it up and speaking out against it right here. And it is far more effective to salute the example of the vegetarian monks of Shaolin, the inventors of karate, who have maintained their vegetarianism through centuries of repression, than to condemn all of China. Indeed, Chinese officialdom has begun to recognize the global prestige of Shaolin, as a leading tourist draw, and to understand that vegetarian nonviolence is the source of international interest.
Ineffective A boycott serves no purpose if it does not hit the boycott target. A broad boycott of China––or any other nation––hits many people who have no say in the matter, over the practices of the tiny minority who are engaged in the fur trade. This is especially unfair inasmuch as China is an authoritarian nation with censored media and centralized political power. As Hong Kong humanitarian Dr. John Wedderburn wrote to us, “The vast majority of Chinese will never hear about the HSUS report. If they do, it will be as a commentary derogatory to the investigators. The Chinese people will have no idea why they are being boycotted, if they ever even hear there is a boycott. The Chinese reaction to a boycott, moreover, would be to close ranks and defend their country.” In any event, most Chinese citizens, including the exporters and people working in tourism who would be hit hardest by a boycott, have little ability to dissent from ruling policy. Within days of the dog fur expose, China at secret trials sentenced Xu Wenli, 55, and Qin Yongmin, 44, to 12 years in prison; sentenced Wang Youcai, 32, to 11 years; and sentenced Zhang Li and Wei Quanbao, ages unknown, to three years each at hard labor. Their apparent offenses were seeking democracy and freedom of expression, and in Xu’s case, accepting $500 from foreign supporters. To voice any protest in China can be dangerous; protest on behalf of animals might not even attract outside notice before being squelched. In effectively responding to the dog fur expose, one must consider two greater goals: to further humane ideals in China, and to end the fur trade, worldwide. Though much repressed, China has a vegetarian and humane religious tradition––exemplified by Shaolin––which may be traced back more than 2,500 years. A boycott of all things Chinese is to discourage the budding re-emergence of that tradition, and to perpetuate the xenophobia of the aging Communist rulers. Even in strongly disapproving of all aspects of Chinese conduct which are inhumane, it is essential to recognize and encourage the counter-tendencies––and this is only accomplished by increasing commerce and contact. Values must be shared, not dictated. The money in fur comes mainly from western and Russian consumers. The suffering is shared among all species who are killed for fur or to feed ranched furbearers, including the whales who are killed to feed the foxes at Siberian fur farms, and the factory-farmed pigs and chickens whose offal feeds U.S.-ranched mink. The message which matters is that decent people neither buy nor wear fur. Outcry over the sale of dog and cat fur is appropriate to the extent that it awakens potential fur customers to the cruelty inherent in closely confining, killing, and skinning any animal. It is pointless, however, if the message that comes across is “Don’t wear dogs or cats––wear minks or beavers or raccoons instead.” As extreme as was the suffering of the animals depicted in the HSUS undercover video, they probably suffered no more than most animals who are caught in wire snares or leghold traps. Neither were they likely to have been kept for longer, in more miserable conditions, than either ranched furbearers or any pig or chicken whose remains Americans eat.
Self-defeating The most influential and most often effective weapon deployed by animal abusers is their claim that animal activists dare attack only the abuses practiced by ethnic minorities. Thus whalers hide behind the Makah tribe, furriers hide behind indigenous Canadians, live marketers in San Francisco and elsewhere assert that racism is behind the anti-live food campaign, and similar defenses are brought forth for bullfighting, cockfighting, and animal sacrifice, among many other forms of animal cruelty. A boycott campaign targeting China for an offense involving many nations of the west as well as the east plays directly into that accusation. To be sure, it is easy to call for a boycott. And calling a boycott enables activists to blow off steam, perhaps get some publicity, and pretend to respond to an outrage.
ANIMAL PEOPLE, however, is interested in results. An effective response to the international dog and cat fur traffic will discourage fur-wearing in any form; encourage vegetarianism; and will directly help the humane movements of the impoverished nations most involved in the dog and cat fur traffic. The surest way to get dog and cat fur out of commerce is to prevent dog and cat overpopulation, by aiding low-cost and free neutering, to keep animals out of the pounds of the nations involved. As we often note, publishing their letters of information along with their addresses, there are already some humane societies in Russia, eastern Europe, parts of China, Thailand, and the other nations with dog and cat fur sellers. They are working to promote low-cost and free neutering, often in locales where veterinary care of any kind is scarce, receiving obscenely little help from most of the wealthy animal protection organizations of the west. (IFAW, the North Shore Animal League, and the British-based National Canine Defense League are outstanding exceptions.) Ask HSUS and any other organization protesting the use of dog and cat fur to meaningfully sponsor low-cost and free neutering in the dog and cat fur-producing nations. And ask HSUS et al to take a firm, clear stand against meat-eating right here in the good old U.S.A.––because much of the abuse of dogs and cats that turns your stomach is closer to standard practice by the U.S. beef, pork, and poultry industries than most Americans might ever imagine. HSUS guesstimated that two million dogs and cats per year are pelted, worldwide. More than nine billion cattle, hogs, chickens, and turkeys endure comparable suffering each year, in the U.S. alone, for dinner tables. All of this suffering makes us sick at heart. And we think we, as Americans, would be in a far stronger position to criticize cruelty abroad if we were equally vociferous against the most common comparable cruelties practiced here––which are, unfortunately, perpetuated by the eating habits of most of our friends and neighbors.
All of this suffering makes us sick at heart. And we think we, as Americans, would be in a far stronger position to criticize cruelty abroad if we were equally vociferous against the most common comparable cruelties practiced here––which are, unfortunately, perpetuated by the eating habits of most of our friends and neighbors.