[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Dumped and consequently feral cats are a huge problem in Australia. I’m a cat man myself, but I would not hesitate to shoot one in the wild (I hope I don’t have to make another reversal and back down to Bobepine or Stray Dog anytime soon for this). There are just too many furry little marsupials and birds being wiped out by cats.
The difference with dogs in Australia is that they do tend to catch them, hold them and if they’re not claimed within a couple of weeks, they are put down. Consequently you don’t notice the dumped dog problem. In the country, a stray dog wandering onto a farm would be shot immediately.
HG[/quote]
Now you’re in trouble, Sir. 
In fact, I think you bring an interesting twist to this discussion. There is a lot to be said about your post, from the way animals are destroyed to the reasons why they are destroyed, and down to questioning why domesticated species end up treated as vermin because they have a negative impact on the natural habitat of other creatures. Australia is a good example of how humans can really screw things up for animals. I’m thinking toads and hares for example, and you mentioned cats.
What I find difficult to swallow, is when animals are destroyed, abused, neglected and dumped for no good reasons.
We rescued a black dog about 3 weeks ago. It had a huge tumor on its chest. The doctor had to shave a circle the size of a rock melon in order to remove the tumor. Big Black is now fully recovered, but his fur has not fully grown yet, so he looks a bit rough. All it is though is just a shaved spot on his body, nothing else. The dog is clean, healthy, defleaed and all. Just an adorable dog too.
Now this guy we call “superman” is our neighbour. We always liked him, he’s always friendly to our dog lucky and he’s just a really nice guy. We call him “superman” because he had a stroke and he can’t walk really well, in fact he more often than not gets around in a wheel chair.
I don’t like him that much anymore. My wife came home about a week ago and she was furious. She had just had a conversation with superman, and he told her that he would like to kill Big Black. :s I was just on my way out the door to go for a walk with the dogs when she came home. As I got out of the elevator, superman was still in the lobby. When he saw Big Black, he exclaimed “Oooooh this dog so dirty!” I got on my knees and hugged Big Black and said “good friend, good friend”, and I put my hand in his mouth to show how inoffensive the dog is, and to show that he’s not dirty and that I would cuddle with this dog anytime. He then pointed to the shaved area on the dog and he said “so sick, so sick” with a disgusted look in his face. I could not help it, I asked him “Are you sick?” He answered “yes.” I replied “I think we should kill you too, then.”
While I agree that things are improving quickly in Taiwan, sometimes I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. Being told that an animal needs to be put down because he’s got a shaved spot, is a good example of how some people really need to be educated. Telling superman that he should also be put down is maybe not the best way to go about it…
Big Black is house trained, scooter trained and he is very friendly. He was an easy rescue, all my wife had to do is say “come”, and the poor thing hopped on her scooter. It’s pretty clear that he was abandoned because of this tumor he had.
MM mentions the lack of modernisation. I don’t know about that… If modernisation can help people treat our furry friends with more respect and humanity, then fine, but that would be called acculturation, not modernisation.
Did I just start a tipping effect on 
