Mon, Aug 11, 2003 page3

• Newsmakers: Protest too late to save `President Pig'

  OBESE Animal-rights activists have decried `divine pig' contests, but it looks as though President Chen's 720kg porcine namesake will still be sacrificed to the spirits

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  A world-wide petition launched last week by animal conservationists against "big pig" contests during festivals might fail to save pigs scheduled for the butchers block this year, including the controversial "President Pig" raised in Hsinchu.

  The plight of the President Pig was recently raised by the publication of an article in Chinese-language media by Buddhist Master Shih Chao-hui (釋昭慧), one of the founders of the Life Conservationist Association.

  

  An oversized pig is rolled into position by its owners in preparation for a ``divine pig'' competition. Despite appeals by animal-rights activists, the pigs will sacrificed to the gods as a means of bringing good luck to their owners.

  PHOTO: THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANIMAL SOCIETY OF TAIWAN

  Master Shih argued that killing the pig would be an unjust action based on people's intention to bribe because believers think that the bigger the sacrifice, the more luck they will have for the rest of the year.

  "The ritual seems to rationalize a set of values linked to sacrificing others' lives for self interest," Shih wrote.

  The President Pig got its name after it was said to have been "spiritually" supported by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) when he visited Hsinchu last year.

  At that time, according to Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳), Chen smiled to enthusiastic residents to show his respect for the local custom, without giving a positive answer.

  Master Shih's article immediately provoked President Chen's supporters. DPP Hsinchu County chapter director Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), who helps organize local festival affairs, published an article in local Chinese media on Thursday stressing Chen's respect for Hakka traditional culture because he is the first political figure to offer a divine pig to the Yimin spirits.

  Meanwhile, animal-rights activists criticized the custom of raising abnormally big pigs as sacrifices to the gods or ancestors. Activists said the custom was "brutality perpetrated in the name of religion and culture."

  Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏), director of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), called for an immediate cancelation of big pig competitions , saying they involve animal abuse.

  At a press conference held last week, Chen Yu-min said that the pigs are usually force-fed for two to three years before being killed, with breeders paying no attention to illnesses resulting from the animals' obesity.

  Taking slave-trading and foot-binding as examples, Sechin Yeong-Shyang Chien (錢永祥), a research fellow at the Academia Sinica's social sciences institute, said that long-standing practices violating the right's of living things would eventually be abandoned.

  Urging people to write to President Chen, EAST launched a world-wide petition on the Internet, which has gained a positive response from local residents and foreign animal-right advocates. Activists said that President Chen should take the lead in giving up the competition in order to correct social customs.

  In response to Master Shih, Providence University vice president Chen Yueh-fong (陳玉峰), an ecologist who won this year's Presidential Cultural Award, published an article in Chinese-language media on Friday, saying that the last thing activists wanted to see is "A-bian becoming a Pig President because of the President Pig."

  Chen Yueh-fong is one of eight originators of the world-wide petition against big pig contests. The thers include well-known Hakka fiction writer Li Chiao (李喬), executive director of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan Chien Hsi-chieh (簡錫土皆), director of the ecological education center of the National Teachers' Association Li Ken-cheng (李根政) and others from animal rights groups.

  Li told the Taipei Times that the petition was launched to promote social education.

  "The process of social progress should be speeded up. Out-of-date customs should be challenged," Li said.

  Petitioners also urged the public to write to governmental agencies in charge of animal and cultural affairs, including the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Interior.

  The fate of the fat pigs, however, seems to remain unchanged. Despite the protests from activists, the 720kg President Pig will be killed at the Hakka Yimin Festival, which this year takes place next Sunday.

  "How can animal-right activists suddenly force us not to keep promises we gave to the Yimin spirits?" DPP Hsinchu County chapter director Lin told the Taipei Times.

  Lin said the lack of dialog between animal-rights activists and traditional culture conservationists deepens misunderstandings.

  There are 39 Yimin Temples in Taiwan. According to Lin, the origins can be traced back to the Lin Shuang-wen (林爽文) incident in Taiwan in 1786. The Hakka settlers rose up to defend their homes, forming an "Yimin army." Hundreds of lost lives were later worshiped by Hakka people as Yimin spirits.

  The Yimin Temple in Hsinpu Township, Hsinchu County, is now the sacrificial center for residents from nearby 15 Hakka villages but also gets followers from all over Taiwan and overseas.

  Lin said that DPP Hsinchu County chapter could give up participating in the contest this year but would never give up sacrificing the divine pig.

  The President Pig has been jointly raised by followers, who spent about NT$400,000 in the last two years.

  "Any custom should be gradually adjusted based on followers' self-reflection rather than sudden external forces," Lin said.

  For example, Lin said, breeders had abandoned undesirable strategies, such as adding lead into pigs' bodies in order to win.
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