Animal rights activists protested outside the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei yesterday, accusing migrant workers of eating stray animals.
Nearly 200 protesters gathered outside the representative office, holding up placards showing photographs of dead dogs and other animals, which they said had been posted on Facebook by Vietnamese migrant workers.
Small pet dogs were held by numerous protesters, several of whom also pushed their pets in baby carriages.
Photo: CNA
Numerous protesters accused Vietnamese migrant workers of being responsible for the disappearance of feral cats and dogs, calling on the representative office to take “effective measures” to stop its citizens from killing feral animals, including “information sharing” and “advocacy” for the workers before they arrive to make them aware of the nation’s legal and cultural norms.
Daan District Wenzhou Community Development Association president Ho Chan-han (何承翰) said that several feral cats had disappeared or been killed in his neighborhood, with Vietnamese migrants workers admitting responsibility.
Such acts are illegal under the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), which bans killing dogs or cats for their meat, he said.
Photo: CNA
Wang Chieh (王婕), a volunteer with the Taiwan Cat and Dog Persons’ Association, said she had caught Vietnamese migrant workers preparing to kill a small dog outside their dormitory after being alerted by a netizen.
Protest spokesman Wang Yu-chiang (汪育疆) called on the representative office to share information with police on the addresses and whereabouts of Vietnamese citizens who had posted the offending pictures. Both Facebook and the National Immigration Agency had refused to provide information to the police on privacy grounds, he said.
He said that activists had discovered the pictures by looking through Facebook groups for Vietnamese migrant workers, adding that they had determined the photographs were taken in Taiwan based on the background and also the content of the Vietnamese captions translated after they had enlisted the help of a Vietnamese spouse.
While Wang said he was a private citizen unaffiliated with any particular animal rights group, Taiwan Companion Animal Support Association executive secretary Lori Lo (駱麗玲) said that activists had gotten to know him in connection with a dog poisoning case in Taichung, with Wang volunteering to organize yesterday’s protest after activists held a separate protest about the same topic outside the National Police Agency building in Taipei last month.
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