About 5,000 pet lovers walked through the busy streets of Taipei yesterday afternoon in a parade urging the government to treat street dogs humanely and implement neutering policies instead of euthanasia.
Beginning at 3:30pm, hundreds of dogs and thousands of people — mostly young, with some dressed in animal costumes or wearing novelty animal ears — packed one side of Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building as they gathered for the demonstration set to start at 4pm.
The parade was organized by an alliance advocating changes to the Animal Protection Act (動物保育法), aimed at demanding a trap-neuter-release (TNR) program to replace what they see as inhumane treatment and ineffective euthanasia of stray animals.
Photo: CNA
Alliance executive director Huang Tai-shan (黃泰山) said the act is flawed because any dog can be taken away by dogcatchers once it is reported on the streets, even if it has not harmed any people.
Since the act was first enforced 13 years ago, about 1.04 million stray dogs have already died in public animal shelters, so only by enforcing a TNR program can the goal of reducing stray animals be achieved, he said.
The alliance said four main principles should be obeyed when legislating the TNR program: “accurate capturing” to ensure animals are not caught arbitrarily, “government-subsidized neutering and spaying,” “neutering and spaying management” and “promotion of TNR through education” to reduce confrontations among people with different opinions toward stray animals.
“Stray pets are caused by the innocence and mistakes of human beings, so the problem should be solved by human beings, rather than have the animals take the blame,” demonstration host Wang Chieh (王婕) said, adding that “‘respect for life’ is a basic value that defines a civilized society.”
Walking dogs on leashes or holding them in their arms, parade participants chanted “Reject indiscriminate capturing; we want neutering,” and “Break through the bad law and win back lives,” as they marched through Ximending (西門町) and in front of the Taipei Railway Station.
“We are not irrational pet lovers and stray-animal policy is not only an issue for pet owners,” Carolyn Chen (陳珮騏), a Taiwanese TV actress, told the crowd through a microphone as they paraded through the shopping area of Ximending.
“If you pay taxes to the government, then you should know that it takes an average of about NT$5,000 to NT$8,000 to get rid of a street dog through the current policy, including capturing, sheltering, killing, freezing and cremating it,” Chen said, adding that most of the money is not spent on treating the dogs humanely.
Chen said that TNR enforced by some pet-lovers — who paid NT$2,000 to NT$3,000 per dog — has proved effective in reducing strays in their communities.
A woman surnamed Chi (紀) said she and several pet lovers founded a Facebook group that — through cooperation and shared workloads — has saved dozens of stray dogs from shelters by taking them to veterinarians, settling them at foster homes and finding them new owners.
“But although we spend countless hours and energy saving as many as we can, the problem will not be solved if the policy is not changed,” Chi said, suggesting that if the government adopts a TNR policy, abandoning pets should demand harsher legal punishments and illegal breeding sites should be targeted in a crackdown.
The demonstration attracted plenty of attention from pedestrians. Many onlookers took out their smartphones to take pictures of the parading pets.
The parade returned to Ketagalan Boulevard at about 6:30pm, and an evening event with lectures was expected to continue into the evening.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS