“Dogs have lives, too; why abuse them and put them to death? If dogs ruled the world and put us to death after abusing us, how would we feel? Animals feel pain and hurt just like we humans do, so please don’t abandon or abuse animals anymore,” a person surnamed Lin (林) wrote on a postcard, which was then hung outside Taipei City’s MRT Shilin Station exit 1 yesterday.
Lin’s message was one among many gathered over the past four days by an animal rights campaign organized by dozens of civic animal protection groups.
The advocates have urged the government to establish an exclusive animal protection department under the planned ministry of agriculture, saying that at present, the Animal Protection Section under the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Department of Animal Industry is not executing its duties.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
They are concerned that the establishment of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Animal Protection next year will result in the continued neglect of animal protection.
The group said they planned to collect 100,000 signatures by the end of this month to file a petition with the government.
More than 100 people with dozens of pet dogs showed up yesterday at the campaign event to support the appeal.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Students from several universities’ animal protection clubs also performed a skit in which they wore skin-colored tights with red ink on them and lay on stacks of garbage bags on the ground after mimicking how dogs at animal shelters were put to death.
Co-organizer Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) said putting stray dogs to death was not an effective way of dealing with the problem, adding that if the government didn’t institute reforms, the killings wouldn’t be stopped.
Veterinarian Huang Wen-tang (黃文堂), who along with several veterinarian friends began a nationwide campaign to neuter pets for free four years ago, urged owners to neuter their pets, adding that the government should provide subsidies to encourage surgery.
“Neutering [pets] is the best way to deal with the problem of stray dogs,” he said. “Many owners are not willing to pay thousands of dollars to neuter their dogs, but after the dogs accidentally give birth to puppies, they abandon the puppies in boxes on the street.”
A dog owner surnamed Hsiao (蕭) said she adopted her pet beagle Little Nice at an animal shelter a year ago. The dog was infected with skin diseases at the time.
It took about eight months for the dog to fully recover, but now Little Nice is very healthy, Hsiao said, adding that it takes patience to adopt pets from animal shelters, but they can recover if looked after.
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