Animal Rights Case Study

I. Introduction

1 There is an increasing trend in the number of debates with regard to recognition of animal rights, placing emphasis on the protection of animal rights. We have seen that such protection of animal rights mainly arise in cases that relate to cruelty towards animals. This phenomenon, however, is not evenly spread out across the world. There is greater emphasise placed on animal rights in the Western countries, as compared to Asian countries.

2 This paper aims to discuss and embark on a comparative analysis on the animal protection laws and recognition of animal rights in Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong. This will be done through discussing the status of animals in these countries and the way these countries deal with

Other issues with regard to animals such as animals testing and the importation of animals are governed by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (“AVA”) Act and the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act . For instance, the AVA will issue a license to an institution that keeps and conducts experiments on animals. The institution must be in compliance with the Singaporean Guidelines on the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes , which provides the responsibilities of the people handling the animals. If they breach any of the guidelines, the Animals and Birds (Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes) Rules 2004 has provisions for the penalties for the institutions, such as revocation or suspension of the

Despite the increasing awareness towards the issue, it is unfortunate that the AVA, the government agency in charge of enforcing animal protection laws, takes a passive stance to prosecute the offenders. Some cases are not considered serious enough to warrant prosecution, while some do not fall within the definition of cruelty and, thus, they do not warrant prosecution. As analysed by Professor Alvin See in his article , it is due to the imprecise language used in the cruelty laws, resulting in their susceptibility to the uncertainty and different