China's capital Beijing has thrown out the country's first-ever draft legislation to protect animals, after it was debunked for being impractical and premature in a still-developing nation.
The decision to reject the proposal to improve the welfare of animals -- which would have required all animals be treated in a humane manner and farm animals to be slaughtered with as little pain as possible -- came just days after the proposal was first publicized.
The Beijing government had put the draft on its website earlier this month to guage public opinion, but last week withdrew it, the China Daily said.
Sources within the city's legal affairs office said experts had advised against the law and there were no other plans for animal welfare legislation within the next five years.
"We've been considering this all along, but ... it's still premature to have this type of law," an official from the legal affairs office told AFP.
The regulations would have banned abuse against animals and contained strict guidelines on how they should be treated.
Animals which have to be slaughtered, such as to control the spread of animal epidemics, must be sedated and not killed in front of other animals, the draft regulation said.
Vehicles transporting animals must be kept clean, the draft also said.
It would have also banned people from organizing fights between animals or between humans and animals for gambling, entertainment, or other commercial purposes.
China has laws banning harm to endangered animals, but none protecting other animals.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a non-governmental organization, criticized the decision to toss out the draft.
"More than 100 countries including some developing countries in Africa have adopted laws against abusing animals, but China has not," the IFAW said in a statement cited by the China Daily.
The group said China has to legislate if the country's livestock husbandry wants to follow international practices.
There is regulation in the World Trade Organization to ensure animal rights and China's exports of animal products could be negatively affected if their rights were not protected, IFAW said.Agence France Presse:
