The Philosophical Research On Animal Welfare In Taiwan

Human subjectivity was influenced by the Renaissance and modem science, since then, human value has been an unprecedented manifestation. In the thinking of "dualism", Nature and life, which stand for sensibility, have gradually lost their inherent value, and this cognitive style is constructed as a human tool. After that, the conquest and use of nature, environment and animals constitute an important part of human development, and voice for the value of life is so weak. However, after the Second World War, more and more people began to reflect and criticize this cognitive style, they raised to solve the modern crisis brought about by advances in science and technology in the view of ethical point, one of which is to recognize and protect the value of nonhuman life through legal means. But it’s not a long history to protect animal through legal means, animal law didn’t have a considerable development in western countries until the second half of the20century. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan completed the formulation of animal protection law in the20th century. Until now Chinese mainland doesn’t have animal welfare law. Taiwan and mainland have similar natural conditions, both adhering to the same root of Chinese culture and cultural conditions, so the experience of Taiwan has a certain reference value of theory and practice for mainland.In early times, economic, environmental protection, agriculture and other sectors of Taiwan legislated to protect the basic rights of animal (mainly wildlife), such as survival, health rights. But its main guiding ideology and spirit of legislation is the traditional Western ethic concepts and legal theory. Animals don’t have legal and moral status as an individual. Therefore, under the conditions of lacked purpose, the protection of animals is equivalent to the protection of natural resources.In the1960s and1970s, Taiwan did well in economic growth and urbanization transformation, at the same time, the environment is also facing a great deal of damage. People had low life consciousness of animal, they adopted pets popularly and abandoned them easily, making stray animals proliferate, and ultimately public safety and environmental hygiene were endangered. For many years, government did hunting operations and wildlife conservation ineffectively, and it also aroused the concerns of the island and international animal protection groups. To eliminate the pressure of economic sanctions, take into account international image, appease the animal protection groups and keep pace with the global trend, Council of Agriculture of "Executive Yuan" established a team for Animal Protection Law in1993, and "Animal Protection Law"-"respect for animal life and the protection of animals" was passed after its third reading in the" Legislative Yuan" in1998.The objects of protection in the law are vertebrates controlled by human, including pets, economic animals and laboratory animals. The spirit of the "legislation" is to respect and protect animal life, which means Taiwan’s society begins to recognize the dominant position of animals by law. But in fact, both from the law provisions proportion and perspective of government policy priorities,90percent of the legal provisions tend to pet’s protection, and mainly focus on the "dog". This phenomenon not only reflects the opportunity of "legislation" of Taiwan Animal Law, but also exposes the compromise in the implementation law. Afterwards, because of the negative resistance of cultural behavior in the practice of law, the competent authorities have announced a number of regulations and administrative provisions, and constantly improve the Animal Protection Law. The law has experienced eight times of amending since it passed13years ago, during each revision, it constantly raises the penalties to prevent animals from being treated cruelly in the community, and in the fifth amending, anyone abusing animal to death and severe disability can be sentenced to less than one year in prison, in order to effectively curb the occurrence of animal abuse. In the sixth amending, animal protection in Taiwan area has changed from the early "anti-abuse" to "animal welfare", and the law has removed and modified discriminatory ambiguity of the language and definitions, focusing on the welfare of pets, laboratory animals and economic animals to make further provisions.In the culture of Western Bible, the concept of rights, especially the depth of human rights ideas, is the fundamental basis of the animal rights movement. The philosophical basis of the animal protection law in Taiwan stems from the animal liberation/rights theory and biocentrism above all. Singer’s Animal Liberation theory is based on utilitarian ethics, standardized by the belief that animal with sentience having moral status, and it has the principle of fairness and efficiency. Singer advocated the interests of life should be considered equally, and animal has the right to be treated humanely. Reagan believes our rights are based on "natural value" that is equal to each person. Singer and Reagan both think the use of animals is caused by an oppressive system. Schweitzer’s "reverence for life" principle believes that every life has the survival of "living will", and people must revere all life as well as themselves. Secondly, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in local culture, as well as religious consciousness have a useful penetration, supplement and adjust on the legislative purpose and contents of the provisions of the Animal Protection Law. Confucianism believes "integration of nature and human" and the information of "loving everything by kind people" and "taking in a reasonable way. The Buddhism views all things are created, person and animal are homogeneous company. So Buddhism advocates all creatures are equal, the methodology comes from Buddha. And it advocates positive rescue of animal in Taiwan,"Humanistic Buddhism", which prevails in Taiwan, focuses on "purify society, the establishment of a Pure Land" secular cultivation. Taoist philosophy thinks that "Tao" is the origin of the world, the world is "generated";"Tao" is prevalent among all things, all things are reasonable, everything is equal in the view of "Tao". Therefore, Taoism is against all behavior of hurting other life, even ecology, in the need of "human".Since the law was put into force, it has achieved some results. Taiwan has formed a relatively complete system of the animal protection law, set up an industry regulation for animal use, provided a distribution network of animal protection facilities and a system, developed an advanced animal welfare inspector verification mechanism, and has improved the public’s respect awareness for animal life. At the same time there are some problems, Taiwan society adheres to the traditional Chinese culture, and the public generally show sympathy for non-human life, it is different from Western culture, where people once considered animal as existing purpose. But after all in Chinese culture, the concept of care for animal life is implicit rather than explicit, negative more than positive, therefore, at the beginning there was a certain social controversy when "legislature" had protection on economic animals and experimental animals in mild weak anthropocentrism position of Taiwan society, and at the same time Animal Protection Law also had a small impact on social etiquette habits. Except different group cognitive level due to difference between Chinese and Western culture, economic development, number and quality of the local population, regional geographical features and other objective conditions in certain social period are also important factors. In addition, the law itself doesn’t have so clear specific welfare standards and compromises on the actual scope of protection."Respect for animal life, the protection of animals "is the trend of the development of world civilization, and it is one of benchmarks for modern countries to enhance the humanitarian level. In order to keep the global trend, Chinese mainland is actively promoting legislation to protect animals. Mainland should combine with the mainland region’s economic and social development level, and gradually improves.