How naive I was to think it quaint
the pigeons that the owner of the exotic pet shop flew over his store. In the
early morning, I have often seen the man, cross-legged on his flat roof,
smoking cigarettes like a chimney, as three dozen pigeons flew over his head
around the condo in which I live in Beitun. I didn't realize he was exercising
them for the great pigeon races.
On the Chinese
language TV station and newspapers there was a report of how PETA's
investigation of cruelty to animals in Taiwan was getting results. More than a
million homing pigeons die every year in private Taiwan open-ocean races. They
are shipped out to sea in typhoon-strength winds and forced to fly back home.
Less than 1% complete the races; they either drown from exhaustion, die in the
storms, or are killed afterwards for being 'too slow.'
The Taichung
District Prosecutors Office charged 129 pigeon racers, including the president
of the Fengyuan Pigeon Club, with gambling and impounded $2 million. Not long
ago, 32 pigeon racers from Kaoshiung's Zhong Zheng pigeon-racing club were
charged, too.
http://www.peta.org/action/action-alerts/first-ever-taiwan-raid-police-bust-pigeon-racers/
When I
passed by the shop, I saw the cruel and unusual way animals were kept:
the terrapins had no room to move, a neurotic tropical bird on a perch,
mostly naked of feathers, couldn't stop bobbing its head, while two albino
animals sat cooped in small cage out front even on boiling hot
days.
While sitting on a
bench, I sometimes notice turtles in the Han River sunning themselves on rocks
in midstream. I didn't know they weren't natural to those waters until my wife
told; they are another example of animal cruelty. Either for religious reasons
(to spare an animal's life and gain points for the afterlife) or for the
convenience of disposing pets who have grown too large, some people put the
turtles there, a hostile environment in which most will suffer and not survive.
Years ago, I remember
seeing a large terrapin at the entrance to a day market in Taipei. The man
with the terrapin was asking for donations from passers-by so he could
transport the animal back to where it came. I didn't realize it was he that had
taken the animal from its natural environment in the first
place.
Since arriving in
Taichung, my wife has taken to donating to TNR (trap-neuter-return)
organizations in Taiwan. In our neighborhood, there are some well-meaning folk
that leave food out for local street cats without realizing they are part of
the problem. These cats have kittens that suffer on the streets, get chased by
stray dogs, or worse. TNR captures these cats and returns them to the street to
live out their lives without procreating; you can tell which cats have been
neutered by the clipped ear.
In addition to
pet-owners who abandon the pets they no longer want to care for onto the
streets, there is a practice in Taiwan of some pet-owners of making their dogs
ride on running boards of their speeding scooters; it is endangering the
animals that could be hurt if they, or the owner, fall off.
Attitudes towards cats,
dogs, and other pets is improving in Taiwan. For example, where before cats
were treated like pests and shunned or abused, many people who once considered
getting lap dogs are now going for cats as pets. In general, there is a trend
to care more for one's pets and learn how to care for them.
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