The Life Conservationist Association (LCA) yesterday urged people to stop giving children inappropriate ideas about how to treat animals by taking them to animal shows or exhibitions that in fact practice cruelty against animals, during a press conference organized by the group in Taipei.
The association showed footage and photographs of animals being forced to perform stunts in order to entertain people at recreational farms, including making miniature pigs jump into ponds and race through loops of fire, forcing monkeys to walk upside-down along a narrow plank and fishing for toads in a pond and then handling them and taking photographs.
“Many animals are being hurt or even sacrificed for the amusement of human beings,” said LCA secretary-general Shih Chuan-fa (釋傳法), adding that in order to understand the situation in Taiwan, the association filmed the animals at several leisure farms nationwide where they had uncovered widespread animal abuse while being called environmental or life education.
Photo provided courtesy of the Life Conservationist Association
The association urged the public to avoid the “touching, riding, feeding and fishing” of animals as well as urging the farms to avoid forcing animals into “inhumane displays and forced performances” given that this can cause harm to the animals while also providing bad examples for children on how to treat animals.
“There is a gap between the recognition of animal protection and the actual practice of protecting them,” said Kurtis Pei (裴家騏), a professor at National Pingtung University’s Institute of Wildlife Preservation.
While many people say that animal cruelty is wrong, they often find it hard to resist the urge to touch or applaud animals on display, he added.
“Most of the animals are in a state of fear when they are being handled by humans, because in their natural environment they are only touched by other animals when they are captured,” Pei said, adding that people often mistakenly believe that patting or caressing an animal is a way to show love and friendliness, but the truth is that the death rate at zoos and leisure farms remain high.
Direct contact with animals may also cause disease to pass between animals and humans, such as the case of an orangutan kept at a leisure farm which was recently diagnosed as having tuberculosis after it was sent to the Pingtung Rescue Center for Endangered Wild Animals for a health test, Pei said.
Lai Wei-jen (賴威任), office director of the Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation, said that confining whales and dolphins in small pools, such as those seen at sea parks, often causes a decline in their echolocation abilities while also increasing the possibility of disease .
Liu Shiang-yao (劉湘瑤), an associate professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Science Education, said footage which showed adults forcing a scared boy to pat a baby crocodile with its mouth taped up while complimenting the “brave” boy was obviously a distorted way to teach children about respect for living beings and wildlife conservation.
“What are we teaching the children by tying up a baby animal that we fear and then claiming victory by taming or torturing it?” she asked.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS