A Feminist Review on Comparative Animal Protection Law

Abstract

This research studies applied feminism theories to evaluate animal protection law and its related implementation, practical measures, and insufficient measures with a comparative approach. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's liberal Feminism was employed to investigate the current dilemmas of animal protection law. The goal is to identify and discover the best practice internationally to guide the ongoing animal protection law legislation in China, a principal legal lacuna of the Chinese civil law system with a holistic perspective of feminism theories. Betty Friedan changed philosophical and ideological attitudes toward sex and raised the ethical argument of animal rights. This study found that the differences between social conditions, legislation reasons, social economics, cultures, conventions must be considered. At the same time, the human emotions, the animal's human relationship, the male-controlled capitalist hierarchy, the relationship between animal and female rights are universal. A historical context perspective was employed in all analyses between animal protection and Feminism in history. The roots of the current animal protection issues were found and studied. A number of solutions on the current animal protection were suggested based on feminism theories. "Equality of opportunity" is the primary instrument for designing solutions. Harming animals is also related to patriarchy. "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal." Therefore, if we want to make a breakthrough in animal protection law, we must be able to implement measures in many aspects at the same time to maximize the effect.