30-Second Overview: Taiwan’s history of animal protection is a dramatic shift from "clearing waste" to "respecting life." In the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwan was infamous internationally for the large-scale and cruel killing of stray dogs, even triggering tourism boycotts from Europe, the United States, and Japan. However, through the relentless efforts of civil groups for thirty years, Taiwan enacted the Animal Protection Act in 1998 and officially became the second country in Asia to implement "zero euthanasia" in 2017. Today, quarantine dogs at airports are national heroes; this history witnesses the leap in the level of civilization in Taiwanese society.
The Era of Shame: "Island of Dog Killing" Billboards at Japanese Airports
In the early 1990s, Taiwan’s international image was at a highly contradictory intersection. While the economic miracle propelled Taiwan onto the world stage, tens of thousands of stray dogs on the streets became the darkest corner of the nation. At that time, the Taiwanese government viewed stray dogs as an "environmental hygiene issue," with jurisdiction falling under the Environmental Protection Bureau’s cleaning teams rather than animal welfare units1.
Between 1993 and 1994, international animal protection groups such as the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) launched a strong boycott movement against Taiwan. At international gateways like Narita Airport in Japan and Heathrow Airport in London, large billboards appeared with the headline "Taiwan: Land of Dog Killing," urging international travelers not to visit this country that was cruel to animals2. The billboards featured shocking images of stray dogs being electrocuted, drowned, or buried en masse. For the Taiwanese government, which was actively striving for international recognition, this was a significant diplomatic and reputational blow.
📝 Curator’s Note: The "dog-capturing squads" of that era were essentially cleaning teams. Dogs were treated as "waste" akin to garbage. Behind this logic of handling lay a collective indifference to the value of life in society.
Awakening Born of Tragedy: From Dog-Biting Incidents to the Birth of the _Animal Protection Act_
International pressure was certainly a driving force, but true awakening came from Taiwan’s own bloody lessons. In 1992, three tragedies occurred consecutively in Hualien, Hsinchu, and Taipei, where stray dogs bit and killed young children, sparking social panic over "stray dog proliferation"3. However, this panic did not turn toward more cruel slaughter; instead, it spurred the organization of civil groups. In 1993, the Society for the Protection of Life was established, beginning to push for Taiwan’s first specialized law protecting animals4.
On November 4, 1998, the Animal Protection Act was officially promulgated and implemented. This law codified the principle that "animals must not be arbitrarily slaughtered." Although it retained the clause allowing "humane disposal if no one claims or adopts them after seven days of announcement," it ended the dark, extra-legal period where cleaning teams arbitrarily electrocuted or drowned stray dogs, elevating animal management from an environmental issue to a legal one5.
The Power of Images: The Social Tsunami Triggered by the Documentary _Twelve Nights_
Even with the Animal Protection Act, public shelters in Taiwan remained in a state of overcrowding and high euthanasia rates for a long time. Before 2012, the euthanasia rate in shelters across the island remained above 50% annually, with some regions reaching as high as 80%6.
In 2013, the documentary Twelve Nights was released, truthfully recording the cruel reality of the countdown of the last twelve days of life for stray dogs in shelters. The dogs’ desperate eyes and the cramped, dirty environment triggered a massive emotional tsunami in Taiwanese society7. This film not only grossed 60 million in box office revenue but also directly translated into political pressure. In 2015, the Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Animal Protection Act in a very short time, announcing the complete abolition of euthanasia in public shelters two years later, a policy known as "zero euthanasia"8.
The End of Twelve Nights: Milestones and Challenges of the Zero Euthanasia Policy
In February 2017, Taiwan officially implemented the "zero euthanasia" policy nationwide, becoming the second country in Asia to legally stipulate that shelters must not kill healthy animals due to space or time constraints9. However, zero euthanasia is not the endpoint, but the beginning of another test.
After the policy was implemented, shelters rapidly became overwhelmed. Due to the "in but not out" dynamic, shelters transformed from transit stations into "final adoption stations," with many dogs staying in small cages for over 1,000 days9. This led to a decline in shelter quality, extreme pressure on veterinarians, and even a policy shift toward "precision dog capture" and "Trap-Neuter-Return-Release (TNVR)," attempting to alleviate intake pressure at the source.
📝 Curator’s Note: While the zero euthanasia policy demonstrates civilizational progress in law, its implementation reveals the bitter fruits of long-term deficiencies in source management (such as penalties for abandonment and owner registration).
Ecological Conflict: The Survival Battle Between Stray Dogs and Native Wildlife
As the number of stray dogs continued to exist in the wild, Taiwan’s animal protection issues entered a new area of controversy: the conflict between stray dogs and native wildlife. In recent years, frequent cases have been reported of musk deer in Yangming Mountain, formosan rock macaques (or specifically, the Formosan leopard cat/shihhu) in Nantou, and pangolins everywhere being attacked and killed by stray dogs, a problem scholars call "dog killing"10.
Research shows that among pangolins sent to rescue centers, more than half were injured by dogs; and among released Formosan rock macaques (shihhu), one-third died at the jaws of dogs11. This has sparked fierce debate between animal protection groups (focusing on individual life) and conservation groups (focusing on species survival). How to protect rare native animals within the framework of "zero euthanasia" has become Taiwan’s most thorny environmental ethics challenge today12.
Taiwan Today: From National Burden to Guardian Dogs
Having walked through that shameful history, the attitude of Taiwanese people toward animals today is vastly different. In 2026, a set of promotional posters at Taoyuan Airport sparked heated discussion on Japanese social media. The protagonists were two sharp-eyed beagle quarantine dogs, paired with a pun slogan "I [sniff] YOU," showcasing Taiwan’s professionalism and humor in safeguarding agricultural security13.
From the shameful boycott billboard at a Japanese airport in the 1990s to the "super-cool quarantine dogs" viral among Japanese netizens in the 2020s, this forty-year arc records not only the fate of animals but also the civilizational journey of how Taiwanese people have learned to coexist with other lives. Although challenges such as shelter saturation and ecological conflicts remain, the belief that "life should not be arbitrarily erased" has become a firm conviction on this island14.
References
Footnotes
1950–2022 Taiwan Stray Dog Event Log, Animal Friendly. ↩
Foreign Reports on Taiwan’s Stray Dog Issues, July 26, 1998. ↩
On the Administrative Management of Our Country’s Stray Dogs and Cats, Council of Agriculture Animal Protection Information Network. ↩
The Foundational Background of the Society for the Protection of Life and the Development of Animal Protection in 1990s Taiwan, Society for the Protection of Life. ↩
The Past and Present of the Animal Protection Act in Taiwan!, National Taichung University of Education. ↩
Don’t Let Me Wander - Our Island, Public Television Service News. ↩
Twelve Nights (Taiwanese Film) - Wikipedia, Wikipedia. ↩
Back to Day Zero: An Interview with _Twelve Nights_, Annie News. ↩
When Transit Homes Become Final Adoption Stations: A Direct Look at the Truth of Public Shelters After the End of Twelve Nights, The Reporter. ↩ ↩2
Whose Home in the Wild Habitat? — Frequent Dog Killings: Ecological and Public Health Crisis under the Conflict of Stray Dogs and Wildlife, The Reporter. ↩
Over Half of Injured Pangolins, 1/3 of Released Formosan Leopard Cats Killed by Dogs: Special Center Laments Arbitrary Feeding, Agricultural Media. ↩
Taiwan Formosan Leopard Cat Conservation Association: More Active Management Should Be Taken for Stray Dogs and Cats, Taiwan Formosan Leopard Cat Conservation Association. ↩
Taoyuan airport posters featuring dogs go viral, Taipei Times. ↩
Animal Protection Act - Wikipedia, Wikipedia. ↩