Protest at Executive Yuan: Pics and Videos!

The November 17 protest in front of the Executive Yuan (government) in Taipei, Taiwan had a good number of participants. See the report below.Conditions in Taiwan's municipal animal shelters are horrible. As people do not neuter their bitches and usually let male and female dogs just stray around, Taiwan has an enormous street dog population. Municipal workers who usually collect the garbage have the job to catch them and bring them to the shelters. There, conditions can be only described as those of a death camp. Hardly fed the dogs get stuck with their feet between the bars of their cages and suffer a slow and painful death. Euthanization usually comes on the 7th day. See images about a neglect and injured dog here (http://osttellerrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/dog-shelter-horror-skewer-in-mouth.html) and below.

For that reason, East.org.tw, a Taiwanese environmental and animal welfare organization, had been organizing a protest in front of the Executive Yuan, see the invitation here: http://osttellerrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/protest-against-cruel-animal-shelters.htmlNow this took place on November 17th, see the images as below:

In the driveway of the Executive Yuan...

People displaying their protest sign and holding speeches via megaphone. Most are animal welfare activist using their own money and time to safe stray dogs neglected by others.

This young dog got stuck in the cage and nobody saved it, it died a slow and painful death. Workers of the animal shelter refused to grant access to the dogs so the dog savers could not rescue the dog and only take a photo.

Almost all banners and signs were Chinese, some in English and even one in German (stray-dogs.org, the rescue organization affiliated with this blog provided those).

Some were wearing masks, probably more afraid their employer might sanction them than of the government, because the protest was legal. Street dogs are not popular in Taiwan, dog savers often get verbally attacked.

Taiwanese press. Also a German reporter was at the event.

Most visitors/participants were naturally locals, also Taipei's foreign community was represented with a few people; remember it was a work day so you can't expect everybody to come.

Colorful protest...

... getting the attention of the press

The protest was peaceful. Note police in front of the entrance of the Executive Yuan in the background.

Stray-dogs.org's sign*** in the background, a KMT and a DPP politician promising improvements in the foreground (both legislators).

Anybody knowing more details about the politicians is invited to post a comment.

Press (foreground) and protesters


...

Finally some representatives of EAST.org.tw could join the politicians to go inside.

Finally a representative of the Executive Yuan speaking to the crowd and discussing with the protesters a long time. The tone of the discussion was friendly. Remember we are Confucian here.

A policeman filming the speech of the representative.


Government building next to the protest:

See the videos here.

Part 1

Part 2

[ videos and some pix removed ]

*** wording of our protest sign kindly provided by poster Nemesis from Taiwan's expat online community Forumosa.com

See you next time.

Photos: all but last one by Stray-dogs.org, last one by Boogier Chen, http://www.pbase.com/boogier, videos by Taiwanese dog rescuers