"Created especially for this exhibition, 'Accident Realm: Ashen Atrocities on a Desolate Island' reveals the social issues generated from the phenomena of pet abandonment and stray animals in Taiwan. In the exhibition space, the artist displays bone ashes and specimens of stray animals. The audience is invited to gather the scattered ashes, put them in envelopes and send them to relevant central and local government institutions."
This was a particularly moving and somber exhibition. The room was dark, except for two spotlights. One shining directly on the pile of animal bones, allowing people to use the provided chopsticks to pick out bones and ashes and place them into an envelope.The second light was shining on the growing pile of envelopes waiting to be sent. Some were stuffed to maximum capacity, and some had lengthy messages written on the outside of the envelopes. Although written in Chinese, the message from the artist and the participants involved in the interactive exhibition is pretty clear:
Do something.
"The work invited the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan to establish a mobile office outside exhibition room 106, in order to assist the audience and provide related information of social action."
Among the countless number of dogs that seem to be tortured on a daily basis, here are a few other instances of animal cruelty I've witnessed in Taiwan:
I took this video at a night market in Hualien. It was especially disturbing for me, because I have a red-eared slider as a pet. This is not how my turtle was purchased:
(Those are rubber bands pinching and bending the turtles' shells, fully equipped with a paper clip for easy access to the magnet fishing pole.)
I almost for about this horrifying pig-slaughtering festival that happens every year.
Additional resources:
- Taiwan SPCA: http://www.spca.org.tw/index.html
- Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST): http://www.east.org.tw/
- Registered pet shops in Taiwan: http://animal.coa.gov.tw/html/index.php?main=3p&page=legal
4 comments:
This is disgusting! Since I visited Taiwan last May, I've decided to devote the rest of my life after college to helping animals in Taiwan. The people who do this, in my opinion, are without souls and lack morals, true psychopaths!
-Coco<3
so sad. i saw that cat pic on zon's page and was so mad. poor little baby animals.
Some of these people make me sick to my stomach! I have caught several owners pulling their dogs along and one guy kicking his dog. My Chinese isn't great, but I think they got the message that what they were doing was not right. People like this need to be locked up. The poor cat in the photo being buried by sand is horrible. Those people should be never allowed to own any pets ever again! And where are the parents that are allowing their children to do such things?!
If you know any stray dogs at your local park, it's always good to make time for them if you can. I've been doing my best with several dogs for over two years now I think - although one of the recent arrivals was unfortunately run over by a car last week.
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