We were told to dressed up in formal attire for the press conference, but the people there were in casual attire, we felt that we were the weird ones, especially Arkka and Bato wore blazer and tie, they looked like the VIPs. The building was very stuffy and hot without air-conditional, the guys were sweating in their formal suit.
The press conference started at 2pm but we arrived earlier at 12pm. We waited for almost two hours and had nothing to do.
All the animal welfare and protection organization set up their booth to show support and to promote "Love and Duties". Besides loving our pets as part of the family, we have to remember our duties and responsibilities for pets and abide by the five freedoms:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst.
2. Freedom from discomfort.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease.
4. Freedom to express normal behavious.
5. Freedom from fear and distress.
Our most respectful Madam Liu Siang Lan, the founder of Taiwan Life Welfare and Environment Quality Association.
A little bunny brought by one of the animal welfare organization.
Director Yen I-Feng from the Taipei Animal Protection Office talked about the duties of human towards animals and the environment.
Taiwanese celebrities joined in to support the programme too. They shared their own story about their pets.
One of the pet traning school performed Dog Obedience Training demonstration. Dogs are trained to do some tricks in a fun way, they learn by playing games and are rewarded for doing each trick properly. Sending pets for training not only teach the dogs to behave and take commands, but also foster the relationship between pets and owners.
Next was our turn to go on the stage. Madame Liu gave a short speech followed by each of us introduced ourselves briefly and comment a little about our programme.
Local and international animal welfare organizations work together for the same goal to promote love and duty for animals.
These are the worker dogs. They are well-trained to work together with people and police or trained to be guard dogs.
After the press conference, Madame Liu took about an hour to share with us her experience in the effort of improving animal welfare in Taiwan. Madame Liu hope that we could bring back whatever knowledge we learnt from this internship to our country to help the animals in our country and also spread our knowledge to more people. She is a far-sighted person who not only thinks about the current condition of the country, but also the future situation of the whole world. The treatment of animals in a country directly reflects the developement and civilization of the country. In her effort of changing the attitude of people towards animal and to protect the animals being harmed, she faced many obstacles and challenges from the government because at that time in the past, animal welfare was neglected and animals were thought to have extrinsic value only, their lives have no value. Many Taiwanese were not satisfied with the way the government treats animals. The government authority eventually gave in to the animal welfare activist and negotiated to set the laws for animal welfare and protection.
Madame Liu is really a very powerful and strong woman who never give up of what she stands for. Although she is already 70 years old now, but she is still very energetic and has a clear mind. She is a happy lady who always claims that her heart is forever 25 years old.
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