Student Alliance for Animal Rights
Xiaoye Xu
In may, 2011, SAFAR China branch launched two outreach programs in Tsinghua and Shandong University respectively, which aimed to educate Chinese students about the urgency to ban certain practices of animal abuse and exploitation, and encourage them to bring the values of animal rights to the society through individual and collective educational strength.
Three topics that revealed issues concerning animal exploitation in the global community were presented in photo exhibitions: ‘moon bear farming’, ‘the truth of fur industry’, and ‘seal hunting.’ Student guides explained the history of these conservation issues, the inhumane treatments to animals involved, and efforts made by individuals and animal rights groups worldwide, to students stopped by the posters. Many students were shocked to see pictures of bears captivated in suffocating cages with metal syringe extracting their biles, and a humongous pile of corpses of skinned animals in a Chinese fur farm. Due to the under coverage of these conservation issues in the media, most students in China have little, if not at all, knowledge of the horrible living situations of many animals in China and worldwide.
Photo exhibition at Shandong University. Credits to Xiaoye Xu
Jing Zhang, the founder of SAFAR, held two lectures at both Shandong University and Tsinghua University. During the speech, Jing first briefly introduced the origin and development of animal rights movement across the globe. Then, she talked about the focus of animal rights movement in history, such as inhumane treatment to farm animals, lab animals, and pets. Jing stressed more on the severe conservation issues in China nowadays including moon bear farms, fur farms, shark’s fin consumption and ivory demands. Even though the animal cruelty and exploitation issues are severe in today’s China, animal protection movement joint by conscientious individuals is still at its initial stage. Animal Rights organizations such as Animals Asia, and various small animals rescue centers run by individuals only started to gain public attention in the past few decades. The draft of the first animal welfare law “LAW OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ON THE PROTECTION OF WILDLIFE” was submitted to the government in 2009 and is still under approval. Many Environmental NGOs were springing up in the past 10 years but neither of their scopes are large.
Jing finally led to the point that how students could act as the voice of the voiceless to end animal cruelties.
1. Join or start student-run organizations aimed to protect environment and animals in universities and local communities. E.g. make a commitment to volunteer in a nearby animal shelter throughout the school years.
2. Dedicate one month or more for an internship in various international animal rights organizations such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF), IFAW and PETA.
3. Raise social awareness through microblog and other social networking websites.
As highlight of the lecture, Jing and her friend Yuan Yuan shared their volunteer experience in an animal rescue center in Costa Rica during the past winter break. Even though the animal care work was demanding and sometimes exhausting, they learnt how animals, nature, and human beings could live in harmony. Jing also conceived the idea of setting up a student-run organization to promote animal rights through student engagement during her journey to Costa Rica.
Yuan Yuan shared her volunteer experience in Costa Rica. Courtesy to Xiaoye Xu
The most important part about SAFAR itself came at last. Jing talked about SAFAR’s mission as to bring college students’ attention on major conservation issues in the global community, and raise social awareness on the urgency to ban animal abuse and exploitation practices such as animal cosmetic testing, bear & tiger farms, fur industry, rhino horn and ivory trades, shark fin consumption, and other cruelties to wildlife and domestic animals. SAFAR’s members come from top universities worldwide including University of Macao, The School of Art Institute of Chicago, Smith College, Xian International Studies University, Tshinghua University, and Shandong University etc. Though it was founded quite recently, SAFAR made many achievements in the past year. SAFAR’s members organized a dance show The World Beside at Smith College to evoke people’s appreciation and respect to animals living in different continents; It opened up its discussion groups on Facebook, Renren, and other social networking websites.
Most people who signed up during the photo exhibition came to the speech. Other audiences were attracted by SAFAR’ s posters hung up on campus. A music teacher who came to Beijing for a competition saw the poster when visiting Tsinghua University also came to Jing’s presentation. People all listened carefully and showed their interests and enthusiasm to Jing’s own experience and her pragmatic suggestions for students to act for animals. Xiaoyi Chen, a student journalist from Shandong University, interviewed SAFAR’s members and wrote a letter to them afterwards, “I was shocked to see the posters presented by SAFAR at Shandong University. ‘Fur farms’, ‘shark fin consumption’, ‘pangolin poaching’…the terms that I wasn’t familiar with stand for the unbearable agony experienced by animal victims. One of the pictures in the poster showed a gigantic moon bear kept in a cage that was too small for it to move around. Couple of days later, I saw a similar picture of a moon bear on a surgery table, a palm pressing the hand of a vet. My tears couldn’t stop falling down as I watched this because I have no clue of how many more animals are suffering, and dying everyday with no one caring about their well-beings. Jing’s speech made a deep impression on me: ‘I know as volunteers, sometimes we will question ourselves how much difference are we able to make as countless animals are being tortured, abandoned, exploited, and killed and we just can’t save every one of them. But if we give up, who will continue to speak for the voiceless? We can’t help them all, but for those we save, it will surely make a difference for them.'”
More pictures of the event:
Thanks to Small Animal Protection Association and Student Government Association at Shandong University who cooperated in this event. It couldn’t be carried out successfully without their help.
@Tsinghua University, Beijing
Posters in exhibition
SAFAR 