Six feline carcasses hang in the factory yard of the Marco-Union Pharmaceutical Company in Beijing's suburban Tongzhou district on April 14, 2015. (Photo/Weibo.com)
Macro-Union Pharmaceutical, based in Beijing's suburban Tongzhou district, is being accused of animal abuse after it was recently discovered the company was hanging feline carcasses outside its factory buildings. Marco-Union manufactures anti-allergy drugs, in cooperation with Chinese investment company Macrolink Group and the Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
Photos posted to Weibo earlier this week shows the dead bodies of six cats hanging in the factory yard of Marco-Union, earning the pharmaceutical company the ire of China's netizens. Many are saying that it is "inhumane" to publicly display dead animals, while some are accusing the factory of animal abuse, alleging that the cats are stray cats that were killed and strung up.
Macro-Union Pharmaceutical eventually responded, saying that these feline carcasses are integral to the company's anti-allergy research. Through a statement, the company says that these bodies were purchased from a source selling animal carcasses for scientific purposes, and were not killed by factory workers.
The statement gives further details; the cat carcasses are dried in the sun, then their hair and dander are extracted and searched from allergens. Marco-Union expressed sympathy for the public's concern over animal welfare, but iterated that the company is not involved in animal abuse of any kind.
The feline carcasses were removed after the photos were posted online.
Medical experts say that drying cat bodies is sometimes part of a normal procedure of pharmaceutical R&D. However, the company should have taken better care to not expose its experimental procedures to the general public in such a manner.
Research staff members from the Beijing Laboratory Animal Research Center say that it is better to extract hair from live animals. If it is integral to the research to work with a deceased animal body, they make sure euthanasia procedures by the carcass's supplier are done humanely.
Animal rights activists hold different opinions; Qing Xiaona, director of Beijing-based Capital Animal Welfare Association, points out that China has no legislation on animal protection, only "Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals", which fails to have any specific binding measures on animal abuse.
Qing Xiaona claims that animal abuse is commonplace during the R&D processes conducted by pharmaceutical companies, research institutes and university research laboratories. Sometimes, dying animals are just thrown into the garbage, instead of given medical attention. Qing insists that moral condemnation is far from enough and binding animal rights laws are badly needed in China. The animal rights activist also suggests that researchers look for more alternatives to using live animals for testing and experiments.
