The First World Lab Animal Day (WLAD) in China

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

For the first time, World Lab Animal Day is commemorated by people in China

this April and May. Chinese Animal Protection Network, introduced this event

into China. We are delighted to present the detail of the event and wish to

share our experience with all people concerning the animal rights movement in

China.

 

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Download the full report(word

formate):http://www.capn.ngo.cn/WLAD2008China_en.doc

View the poster of the event: http://www.arc.ngo.cn/wlad/WLADPoster_small.jpg

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Background

Although lab animals¡¯ protection has been a very active chapter of the animal

rights history in the west, the whole Chinese advocacy community had very

limited awareness or action on the issue. Before this March, if searching " ÊÀ½ç

ʵÑ鶯ÎïÈÕ " £¨Chinese translation of WLAD£©in several most popular search

engines, one can find almost nothing relevant.[3]. as a group pioneered many

areas of animal protection in the past several years [2], we are long aware the

gap of lab animal protection in the country. Thus we decided to introduce WLAD

into China this year.

 

Method

Our preparation for the WLAD (24th April) starts long before 24th of April.

First we surveyed the lab animal usage in China then put the result into an

open letter. In the letter we 1) demonstrate the urgency, significance of the

lab animal protection; 2) introduce the history of WLAD and 3) call people

around the country join us to commemorate the first WLAD this April. Despite of

the open letter, we also prepared other educational material such as posters,

banners and articles. All those materials are published via one of our website

project 'Animal Rights in China' (http://www.arc.ngo.cn) and our cooperative

network.

 

Result

This open letter was a big success; it is circulated over Internet by our

supporters and has brought lots of rational online discussion [1]. Its worth to

mention, many supporters are actually from research/educational institutions

which use lab animals.

Lab Animal Management Committee of Jiangsu Province (a governmental department)

republished one of our WLAD article on the homepage of their official website.

http://www.jsdw.org/dw/

Hefei Evening, a regional newspaper with about 260,000 circulations, introduced

WLAD in one of its articles on 23 of April.

We also received many echoes offline - supporters around the country organized

inspiring local events from 24th April to May.

Below are some of the offline events/actions

& #61548; 24th of April, the head of Medical College of Nanjing Agriculture

University organized an offline petition on the campus to commemorate WLAD.

Report of this event on the universities website:

http://grasch.njau.edu.cn/ygb/showarticle.asp?id=694

& #61548; 24th of April, an independent university student organized an offline

petition on his campus with the help of other members of his organization.

Photo on the right is from this event. The student¡¯s original report can be

found: http://www.povchina.ngo.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=8191

& #61548; The Volunteer organization of Life Science College of South China

Agriculture University organized series events to commemorate WLAD this May.

The events are: 1) a survey of students¡¯ attitude towards lab animal, 2)

organizing students to visit local animal shelter 3) and a lecture on animal

protection to students.

& #61548; 22nd of April, Chengdu animal group 'Home of Love' displayed the

poster and commemorate WLAD on their event.

& #61548; Environmental group 'green camel bell' organized educational

activities of WLAD in their office and local zoo

Many other supporters around countries requested the educational poster from us

and displayed it locally. In total 1000 posters have been sent to following

destination for display

& #61550; Guangzhou, Yangzhou, Lanzhou, Shanghai, Tianjing, Dongguan, Chengdu,

& #61550; Beijing University, University of Science and Technology Beijing,

Northeast Normal University (Changchun), Nanjing Forestry University, Northwest

Normal University (Gansu), Zhangzhou Normal University, West China Normal

University (JinZhong)

We thank Compassion for Animals Foundation for the funding of printing of

posters; we thank everyone who has helped us to spread the message of WLAD in

China. The journey of lab animal protection has just begun!

 

 

2008 WLAD team

Chinese Animal Protection Network

website http://www.CAPN.ngo.cn