There’s a general lack of respect for animal dignity. In general Taiwanese put people’s convenience and acquisition of wealth above animal rights.
Take the case of the NTU student from Macau choking several stray cats to death for kicks for example. The police’s reluctance to file the case stems from their lack of respect for animal rights. Aside from animal lovers who are calling NTU to expel the cat killer, most Taiwanese say stuff like “it’s just a cat, why make such a big deal over it.” They say that because they put a young NTU student’s future over animal dignity.
They will say stuff like “if animals are such a big deal, why don’t you make a law so everyone has to be a vegetarian.” As if their lack of willingness to be a vegetarian justifies ignoring animal cruelty.
The same lack of respects also leads to people not giving a shit about the environment. The amount of trash people throw into rivers, the ocean, mountain slopes is atrocious. Anywhere that has a sign that says “Do not feed wild animals”, you can forget about people being literate. Feed the monkeys fruits, fine, I’ll turn a blind eye. Feed them Seafood flavored snacks? WTF? The amount of sodium along would have severe impact to their health, but no one would care, they just want to take cool pictures of monkeys.
Sorry, I’m ranting cause I saw a bunch of such people over new years weekend. There’s a sign that says do not feed the animals right above that guy’s head. When they take that photo, that sign’s probably in the shot.
As if it isn’t enough to just observe them…
No, we must leave trash all around them, so little monkeys play with choke hazards
