Protection of Animals for Education & Experiment in Thailand

Abstract

Use of animals for education and experiment is still necessary. In several cases, there are no other means used in substituting the use thereof; as a result, a large number of animals are used in teaching on science and medicine and used in research and experiment. Nonetheless, in certain cases, there are those who use animals for education and experiment without taking in account the death of the animals, irrespective of whether the methods so used are cruel to animals or not, and without taking into consideration the extinction of the wildlife used for the education and experiment. Hence, this Thesis aims to study whether there are appropriate and sufficient laws on animal protection in Thailand or not; how the fact that having the laws or having no laws mentioned above shall cause problems and have impacts upon the implementation of policies on animal protection in education and experiment of the country; and which methods shall be used as guidelines in the problems-solving.

According to the study, at present, there are merely the provisions contained in Section 381 and Section 382 of the Penal Code and the provisions under Wildlife Preservation and Protection Act B.E. 2535 (A.D. 1992) as applicable to protect the animals for education and experiment. However, due to raising or using animals for education and experiment are closely related to the animals’ lives and welfares. Moreover, raising or using animals for education and experiment are needed to be performed by specialist. Therefore, there must be provisions in protection of the animals as different from wildlife or general animals. Furthermore, even though there is the Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals for Scientific Works B.E. 2542 of the National Research Council of Thailand, it has no any sanction like a law. Thus, it is unable to be used in protection of the animals used for education and experiment in an efficient manner. In addition, in taking into consideration the developed countries; for instance, England and Germany, those countries have direct legal provisions protecting the animals used for education and experiment. And the fact that Thailand has no any particular law protecting the animals used in education and experiment causes a variety of subsequent problems and impacts; namely, impact on animals’ welfares and animal raisers’ and users’ heaths and sanitations, impact on environments and communities, and impact on quality of the researches, which may lead to resistance by the groups having protective concept toward animals’ freedoms.

For these reasons, this Thesis is proposed to have laws on animal protection for education and experiment of Thailand, whereby the crucial essences are the determination of the category of the animals under protection, the acts subject to laws, the regulatory entities, the application for permission to raise or use animals for education and experiment and the application for permission to establish the operational places, the determination of measures on animal protection for education and experiment, and the penalties, so as to halt and prevent more problems and impacts arising in Thailand, including to also create good images in favor of Thailand.