In response to tremendous international pressure, the Taiwanese legislature passed the island's first-ever animal protection law on October 13.
Thanks to the hard work of Taiwanese activists, Taiwanese nationals abroad, and all the petitions, letters, and demonstrations generated by PETA members and other concerned individuals worldwide, as well as the participation of countless businesses, celebrities, politicians, and veterinarians, the government of Taiwan recognized the importance and necessity of this basic anti-cruelty law.
Now that the law has passed, the next step in Taiwan must be the cleanup of the island's nearly 70 dog pounds. Please click here to obtain a list of some of the worst pounds in Taiwan and information on how you can help clean them up. During a recent visit to Taiwan, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, along with her assistant and a veterinarian, witnessed major problems for the animals, despite somewhat improved conditions in several of the nation's worst pounds.
In Taiwan, no law prohibits cruelty to animals. Recently, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, went to Taiwan and saw for herself the horrors that these dogs suffer every day. Officials tell us that mass dog drowning in the city of Keelung has stopped as a result of Ms. Newkirk's trip to Taiwan, but we await confirmation. Meanwhile, unofficial reports continue to surface. It is reported that in most cases, garbage men, who are responsible for dog roundups, discard living dogs by methods that require the least amount of work. Some reports describe poison being sprayed onto dogs, causing them to die slowly after they lick themselves. They report dog electrocutions lasting 20 minutes while the dogs scream in pain and smoke rises from their fur. Some citizens tell us that dogs are caged and then left to starve or are dropped into abandoned mining shafts and left to die.
On September 16, a PETA member met with Mayor Tsai of Hsinchu on an official visit to Cupertino, California, and urged him to make changes within his city to stop the suffering of dogs and to ask the legislature to pass the anti-cruelty law. Local PETA members called the Cupertino mayor and asked him to encourage Mayor Tsai to work for the protection of the dogs.
On September 10 in 13 U.S. cities and eight countries (including Canada, France, England, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, and Australia), PETA released never-before-seen videotape footage and photographs of dogs suffering in Taiwanese pounds. Hundreds of caring people joined vigils in support of the first-ever animal protection bill in Taiwan. In London, more than 100 people turned up to speak out, while in Italy, a group of activists stayed up through the night holding a candlelight vigil. The success of the demonstrations was apparent in the reports of stories in several Chinese and Taiwanese newspapers about the demonstrations. The Central News Agency (the Taiwanese wire service) stated that “the Legislative Yuan is expected to pass the law governing the protection of animals during the current session. ... Under the proposed law, the government's responsibility in handling stray dogs will be further strengthened." And the China Times reports that the Council of Agriculture announced that it will make the animal protection bill a priority in the year's legislation.
Many celebrities have sent letters to the Legislative Yuan supporting the animal protection bill. We are extremely grateful to them for using their voices to speak for the dogs who cannot speak for themselves. Many were featured in an ad; still others have written personal letters, including: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Steven Seagal, Jackie Chan, Wolfgang Petersen, Olivia Newton-John, and Rue McClanahan.
In the short time since the ad ran, other celebrities, including Richard Donner, Luciano Pavarotti, Thomas Gibson (TV's "Greg" from Dharma & Greg), Alicia Witt, Tim Curry, Bea Arthur, Anthony Michael Hall, DeDee Pfeiffer-Fein, and Jorge Rivero, have all added their names to those asking for the Legislative Yuan's passage of the animal protection bill.
A typical Taiwanese dog pound where countless dogs are crammed together. Such overcrowding leads to disease and injuries from fighting. Sick animals are left untreated, and dead animals are often left to rot in cages with live animals.
Street dogs in Taiwan sometimes die slowly and painfully from having sulfuric acid thrown on them. Some are strangled to death for meat or out of spite.
