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On this day in vegan history · April 11, 2017

Taiwan Outlaws Eating Dogs and Cats

After a video of soldiers strangling a dog and dumping it in the ocean set off public fury, Taiwan's legislature made the island the first place in Asia to ban eating or selling dog and cat meat outright.

The facts

Date passed
April 11, 2017, by Taiwan's Legislative Yuan
Fine for eating or selling dog/cat meat
NT$50,000 to NT$250,000 (about $1,659 to $8,295), with offenders' names and photos subject to public disclosure
Penalty for intentional cruelty
up to two years in prison and a fine up to NT$2 million (about $65,000), doubled from the prior maximum
Promulgated
April 26, 2017

On April 11, 2017, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan amended the Animal Protection Act to explicitly outlaw the sale, purchase, and consumption of dog and cat meat, along with any food product containing their meat or other parts. The same amendment doubled the maximum penalty for intentionally harming, injuring, or killing an animal to two years in prison and a fine of up to NT$2 million. President Tsai Ing-wen, who campaigned in part as an owner of rescued cats and dogs, promulgated the law on April 26. Dog and cat meat had never been common fare in Taiwan, but a string of cruelty cases, including one involving soldiers caught on camera, pushed lawmakers to close the loophole for good.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. bans the sale and consumption of dog and cat meat and of any food products that contain the meat or other parts of these animals.

    Description of the Animal Protection Act amendments, from the Library of Congress's Global Legal Monitor

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. caught on video beating and strangling a dog, and then tossing the body into the ocean

    Animal Equality, describing the 2016 incident involving Taiwanese military personnel that helped spur the ban, April 12, 2017

    Source: Animal Equality

Why it still matters

It was the first national ban of its kind in Asia, and it reframed dogs and cats in law as companions rather than livestock, a distinction animal advocates elsewhere in the region are still fighting to establish.

Sources

This history is still being written.

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