For most people the phrase “animal welfare” evokes images of abandoned puppies. Yet few of us think of food animals – pigs, cattle, chicken, etc. – and the abuse they suffer on their way from the farm to the dinner table.

In fact, 90 per cent of all animals in Hong Kong are food animals, but there are few laws to ensure their humane treatment.

For instance, in contrast to basic international animal welfare standards, Hong Kong has no laws requiring pigs to be anesthetised prior to castration. Sick and dying pigs are also commonly dumped at rubbish collection sites alive, instead of being euthanised. There are no laws to ensure that the 1.3 million chickens produced annually by local chicken farms have adequate food and water, and these birds are routinely killed through bloodletting, a practice banned in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

At the Sheung Shui slaughterhouse, which handles 1.5 million pigs every year, CCTV cameras are often turned off or pointed away from the slaughter areas, rendering them useless for inspection purposes. HKU Professor Amanda Whitfort discovered that workers use electric goads to strike the pigs, and force pigs with fractured pelvises to struggle up ramps with their legs tied together.

The underlying problem is that Hong Kong’s laws concerning slaughterhouses are both outdated and irrelevant. Not only do regulations fall short of the standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health, but the existing laws were also written for the wrong animals. “We are stuck with archaic laws that relate to what the colony considered likely to be farmed here – cattle, goat and sheep, none of which we farm,” explained Whitfort. “We have pigs and chicken, but we have no ordinances covering them.”

But why should we care about the treatment of food animals, anyway? “Just because we eat them doesn’t mean their suffering is any different from dogs’, cats’, or birds’,” argues Whitfort. Even disregarding any interest in animal welfare, there are human health concerns to consider. The lack of regulations to ensure adequate disinfection and proper handling of sick or dying animals means that disease could easily spread in Hong Kong.

Perhaps we would rather be ignorant. But if the saying is true – that “we are what we eat”– then maybe we should take a minute to consider how our food arrived on our plate.

Caroline Chen