Mr. Steve McIvor, CEO of World Animal Protection: Bring Welfare to Animals and Make the World a Better Place

         Humans and nature are one. Human and animals originated from one. How to strengthen animal protection and build a beautiful world where people and animals live in harmony has become an important issue requiring global discussion and action. 

         Steve McIvor, CEO of World Animal Protection, said in the interview with China.com, "When I reflect on the ecological environment of the planet and the relationship between animals and people, I feel it is very important to protect animals and share the earth with them."

         The attitude of a country to animals reflects the morality of a country, and animal protection has gradually become an international language. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the report of the 19th National Congress that man and nature were one. Humans had to respect nature, conform to nature, and protect nature.

          In this regard, Steve McIvor believed that "this is a very inspiring point of view. President Xi Jinping is obviously completely correct. Animals, nature and people cannot be separated. When nature, people and animals live in harmony, everything will better. When we over-exploit nature, harm wild animals or destroy their habitats, not only the earth and animals suffer, human beings will also suffer. Our work is to help China realize the beautiful vision of President Xi."

          World Animal Protection has a history of more than 50 years and is committed to ending animal abuse, focusing on animal welfare and creating a world where people and animals live in harmony. According to Steve McIvor, World Animal Protection was the world's largest animal welfare organization with general consultative status in the United Nations. The organization works globally and engage in dialogues with global leaders and governments to make changes happen.

          In recent years, World Animal Protection had proposed a series of solutions regarding to the unreasonable exploiting of wildlife resources, marine "ghost fishing gear", farm animal welfare and other issues, and achieved certain results.

          Steve McIvor stressed: "Currently, the ocean is being polluted and destroyed. Fishing nets and fishing gear are often discarded and lost in the ocean. They will not rot, trapping fish and damaging the marine environment. Therefore, we have been working with companies, fishery associations, fishermen and consumers to find solutions to this problem. We have achieved some success, but there are still huge challenges."

           As an expert in animal welfare, Steve McIvor had been actively promoting welfare-friendly farming in the world. He pointed out that in order to meet the growing human demand for meat, eggs and dairy products, intensive industrial farming had become a global agricultural production method. However, while pursuing efficiency, the living conditions of farm animals had been seriously neglected, and the promotion of welfare-friendly farming was imperative.

         “In terms of quantity, humans currently have 70 billion farm animals. Humans need safe food and healthy farm animals. But in terms of farming methods, the traditional low-welfare industrial farming model has caused a lot of pain to animals which couldn’t express their nature. This is an urgent problem to be solved. In addition, there is pressure on the environment caused by large-scale industrial farming. These are our concerns," said Steve McIvor.

           Respect life and be kind to animals. World Animal Protection highly recognized the green development concepts advocated by China that "people and nature are one".

           Steve McIvor said, "China is a very important country on the global stage. It is a very important country for us. In recent years, we have noticed that China is paying more and more attention to the ecological environment and animal protection. We have seen China revise the laws on wild animal protection and include animal welfare in the laws. We are confident that we can get strong support from policy makers and companies to promote animal protection in China. We established an office in Beijing in 2007. I am happy to tell you this time, we came to Beijing because we are registering and filing according to China's Foreign NGOs' Domestic Activities Management Law, and we will continue to carry out various animal protection work in China in the future."

           Bring welfare to animals and make the world a better place. Steve McIvor had a great interest in China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative. He believed that in animal protection, there ware a lot of opportunities for cooperation along the "Belt and Road" countries. “The ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative has great influence in the world. We have been cooperating with relevant Asian and African countries included in the initiative to promote animal protection. China can have a positive impact on the countries along the route through the “Belt and Road” initiative. This will enhance the welfare level of both wild animals involved in international trade and farm animals in an industrial farming environment. We very much hope that China will actively promote cooperation with these countries,” said Steve McIvor. 

            This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of P.R. China. For the new era, Steve McIvor was full of expectations. He said, "China has experienced a long period of hardship and has now developed into a big country with success in many aspects. The Chinese detector landed on the back of the moon. This is a remarkable achievement. For us, when China is starting a new era, I especially hope that China would play a global leadership role in environmental protection and animal welfare, not only to improve these situations at home, but also to solve these problems with other countries on a global scale."