Animals Asia's Jill Robinson provides background on current animal welfare issues.

Participants include animal-welfare groups, academics, legislators and officials.

Over 100 academics, government representatives and animal-welfare personnel from across China attended this important forum. This included academics from leading universities – the University of Beijing, Chinese Agriculture University and China University of Political Science and Law. Government representatives from Beijing Municipality, officials from the legislative office of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, and representatives of over 30 animal-protection groups working on the front line of animal protection in provinces across China also attended.

The forum was organised to discuss the continued development of animal-protection legislation for China and brought animal-protection representatives together with law drafters, influential academics and government officials, to discuss the need for such legislation. The forum also helped to build relationships between protection organisations and the government, and provided practical advice to groups on lobbying, research, outreach and media relationships.

Animals Asia Founder and CEO Jill Robinson joined Pei Su, ACTAsia for Animals, Qin Xiao Na, Capital Animal Welfare Association and Peter Li, Humane Society International, in setting the scene on the current welfare issues for animals across China and globally, before the delegates discussed why legislation was needed and how legislation currently helped to improve animal welfare in other countries.

Professor Meng Ping of the Central Institute of Socialism described how over 700 million pigs across China are currently injected with water to increase the weight of their meat and how legislation to prevent this practice may be of benefit human health as well as animal welfare.

Assistant Professor Zhao Yinjie, North East Forestry University called for additional protection for companion animals to control the breeding and sale of dogs and cats, and education to reduce abandonment and improve owner responsibility towards companion animals.

Ms Xiang Yun, a Beijing representative of the National People’s Congress, said that we should live in harmony with animals and not derive pleasure from treating animals in a cruel manner. Miss Xiang called upon all participants to build a consensus within academic, political and animal-protection fields to develop animal-welfare legislation.

Professor Gao Li Hong, of the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law Association, provided a reflection on the current draft legislation and called for additional resources for animal-welfare groups to lobby the National People’s Congress for effective animal-protection legislation.

The forum was a huge success and helped to develop a foundation for future debate on the implementation of China’s first animal-protection law.

Animals Asia and animal-protection organisations both within China and globally are now providing information to the drafters of the legislation to provide as much protection for farm, laboratory, companion, captive and wild animals as possible.

Please click here to download further details of the workshop from ACTAsia.