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Last month, one of the hot topics has been a new law that is still in the stage of discussion. 相信在刚过去的11月份，有不少小伙伴都看到了网上关于《反虐待动物法》的讨论。

When it comes to animal protection, which seems to be a straightforward topic, there are so many controversies, so many touchy subjects, and of course even more specific expressions.

So I thought in today's episode, let's talk about 【animal protection】. 今天的酒馆里Lulu就陪你聊聊动物保护这个非常具有争议的话题。

Now before I start, I just wanna say that all the things we're discussing today in this episode are going to be neutral. 今天节目里提到的这些话题都会比较中立。

It's more about giving you a framework for discussion, and keeping you up to date with what is being discussed. And it's up to you to take your own stand.

So let's get started.

When talking about animal protection, one of the things you are likely to hear is animal welfare. 动物福利或者动物福祉。This is the well-being of non-human animals. Well, depending on different contacts, standards of animal welfare vary greatly. And it is being debated by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics.

When people say they are for animal welfare, or they respect animal welfare, this is often based on the belief that non-human animals are sentient /ˈsentiənt; or /ˈsenʃnt/.

When you say something is sentient /ˈsentiənt; or /ˈsenʃnt/ , it means they have feelings. They can feel pain and they are aware. And because of this, the consideration should be given to their well-being or suffering, especially when they are under the care of humans.

And these concerns can include how animals are slaughtered, killed for food, how they're used in scientific research, how they're kept as pets in zoos or farms or circuses etc., and how human activities affect the welfare and survival of wild species.

But when you talk about animal welfare, you do hear different voices, some people including some thinkers in history believe that humans have no duties of any kind to animals. 关于动物福祉，就有一部分人认为人类本来就对动物没有任何义务。

And the other view is based on the animal rights position believing that animals should not be regarded as property and any use of animals by humans is unacceptable.而另一派则认为动物不应该只有福利，还应该有rights权利，and they shouldn't be regarded as property or being used by humans in any way.

And to be more specific, the law we're talking about in China right now is about “cruelty to animals”. 虐待动物在英文里叫做“cruelty to animals”.

Animal cruelty can be broken down into two main categories: active and passive.

Passive cruelty usually is because of neglect, so you're not actually actively doing anything to hurt the animals, but because you're not taking proper care of it, a result in suffering or harm upon animals;

And active cruelty obviously means you are intentionally hurting the animal, like most of the bloody cases we see in the news.

Again, there are different approaches when it comes to laws concerning animal cruelty. For example, some laws they might govern methods of killing animals for food, clothing or other products; and other laws concern the keeping of animals for entertainment, education, research or as pets.

When it comes to this, again, there are different opinions. Some people think that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for human purposes, such as food, clothing, entertainment, fun and research. But it should be done in a way that minimizes unnecessary pain and suffering. For these people, it is okay that we eat animals, use them for clothing or entertainment and scientific research, but we shouldn't cause unnecessary pain and suffering.

And a lot of the times, this group would advocate for humane treatment. 这部分人通常都会提到humane treatment也就是更人道的处理办法。For example, they might say it's okay to eat chicken and beef, but it's not okay to keep them in cages, you should raise them free range, so let them run around.

So this is one side, the other side, the opposing side they argue that the definition of unnecessary pain should include all current use of animals. So essentially, any pain here is unnecessary.

Whilst these two opposing sides are constantly battling and arguing against each other, most people would agree the outright cruelty and abusive behavior to animals, especially pets should not be tolerated. For example, these pet abuse cases you see in the news.

Now in quite a few countries, cruelty to animal in this form can be punished by law in a very serious way. That's also because a history of torturing pets and small animals is considered one of the signs of certain psychopathology.很多国家对于比如虐猫虐狗这样的事件处罚的非常严厉，这也是因为对于这些宠物的折磨和虐待，其实有的时候也是精神变态者的一个标识, for example, antisocial personality disorder比如反社会人格障碍。

If you watch enough crime shows as I do, you have definitely heard of something called McDonald Triad. 喜欢看罪案剧和犯罪心理的小伙伴们肯定听到过McDonald Triad也叫做连环杀手三要素。

According to this theory, cruelty to animal is a common although not universal behavior in children and adolescence who grow up to become serial killers and other violent criminals. It has also been found that children who are cruel to animals have often witnessed or been victims of abuse themselves.

Now moving on to other aspects of cruelty to animals, usually when we talk about animals, we put them in categories of wild animals, farm animals and pet animals.

So wild animals would be things like tigers, pandas, things that you're only likely to see in a zoo or wildlife park; farm animals are usually animals we use for food sources or farming purposes; and pet animals obviously animals we keep as pets.

And when we talk about cruelty to animals, usually you need to think about all three categories.

Now some of the relevant aspects of cruelty to animals might include blood sport involving animals. These would be your bullfighting, cockfighting, dogfighting, the use of animals in circus performance. For example, monkey performance or elephant performance. There are also a lot of people against keeping animal in captivity, keeping them locked up, that's why the traditional zoos are becoming less popular. Nowadays, you see a lot more wildlife parks where wild animals are allowed to roam free, and visitors should be kept in a vehicle.

The other controversial topic is the fur industry. In recent years, some brands and department stores have decided to ban fur and use alternative materials known as faux fur or fake fur. 那近些年来，有不少人开始对皮草行业进行抵制，很多品牌也从真皮草转向了fake fur人工皮草，有时候也叫环保皮草。

Another major field of controversy is unnecessary scientific experiments. The reason why it's controversial is people really have different ideas as for what is necessary and what is unnecessary.

For instance, some people might say scientific experiments done for medical reasons, for example, drug trials are necessary. However, experiments done and animals for cosmetic products are not necessary.

And moving on from the science community to pet industry, if you would like to have a pet, there are different ways to get it.

The first one is adoption, so you can go and adopt a cat from your friends or from a rescue center. But if you want a pure breed or specific breed, then you might have to go to qualified breeders or sellers. 正规的配种犬舍或者猫舍叫做qualified breeder.

But because there's a lot of profit to be made, in this industry, they are puppy mills or kitten mills, these are the illegal breeders, 黑心的犬舍或者猫舍, and they cause a lot of problems and of course in their treatment of dogs and cats, there are lots of cruelty issues.

Another issue with pets is abandonment issues. For whatever reason, when a pet gets abandoned, they become a stray, and sometimes abandon animals they can become feral, 会变成野狗野猫, and they can contribute to the feral population.

And this can cause many serious threats, for example, feral dogs, they can pose a serious threat to other pets, children and a general public.

So that's a lot of discussion and a lot of issues when it comes to cruelty to animals and animal protection.

The thing is when we talk about this issue, most people are emotional because we've all had experiences with animals one way or another, good or bad in our life.

So the important thing here is before you argue, know what you're arguing about, to get informed with where other people are coming from.

So after the quick crash course for animal protection, cruelty to animals, how do you think about this issue? What do you think should be considered as cruelty to animals? Leave us a comment in the comment section. We'll see you next time.