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New regulation focuses on animal welfare
Beijing plans to make animal welfare a matter of law. The city's top legislative body reviewed Wednesday a draft law to protect the rights of animal used for research as part of a session that also touched on garbage disposal and traffic safety. "Organizations and personnel engaged in experiments that use animals as subjects should guarantee the welfare of the animals," the draft says. At the same time, researchers should avoid using animals or reduce the number of animals used in experiments whenever possible. "Animals used as subjects for experiments should be treated in a proper way," the draft says. The Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress will vote on the revised draft when it meets again in December. If approved, it will replace a 1996 rule, said Liang Ping, vice-director of the Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports Committee, which submitted the revised draft. The revisions give more depth to the regulation. The 1996 version prescribed a love for animals. "But that is not enough now. We need more detailed stipulations on the issue of animal welfare," Liang said. Animal welfare has become a barrier to joint Sino-foreign projects after China's entry into the World Trade Organization. alfred, I think in the above para, it does not generally mean foreign trade. It refers to cooperation in the projects using animals as subject of experiments. --- whao How about "joint... projects" Alfred The regulation over animals used in experiments was put forward yesterday by the Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports Committee. Animal welfare was just one of the topics the Standing Committee tackled. The director of the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission Chen Wenzhan told local legislators that 93 per cent of urban rubbish and 30 per cent of rubbish in rural areas will be treated without hurting the environment this year. There are a total of 17 facilities in the capital city to deal with daily waste. In the coming four years ahead of 2008, when Beijing holds the 29th Olympic Games, 15 new garbage treatment facilities will be set up in the city with an investment of 3.2 billion yuan (US$390,000). Zhang Yi, director of the Urban Construction and Environmental Protection Committee of the Standing Committee of Beijing's People's Congress called for more garbage burning, instead of merely burying it. According to Zhang, 90 per cent of the daily rubbish in Beijing is buried. Over 4.2 million tons of rubbish is produced in the capital city every year. "To bury rubbish underground takes up a lot of land and has a negative impact on the environment," Zhang said. The implementing rules of the Road Traffic Safety Law was also part of yesterday's meeting. A countrywide law was passed by the National People's Congress and it is now up to Beijing legislators to implement it in the capital. The implementation was debated yesterday after soliciting public opinions at a public hearing last month. The original put the onus on motor vehicles in case of a collision involving a pedestrian or non-motorized vehicle. The revised draft, which will be voted on tomorrow, says drivers should only be solely responsible when they do not take steps to protect the scene of the crash, fail to report the incident or when when there is no evidence to prove that the pedestrian or the non-motor vehicle drivers have violated the law and the driver has taken steps to deal with the collision. |
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