"Every one has the right to freedom of opinion and expression including freedom to voice opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impact information, and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers" as written in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. In the history of the nation's pursuit of nation's pursuit of freedom of the press, the abolition of the publications law on Tuesday (Jan. 14, 1999) in Taiwan was a milestone. The last remnant of authoritarian era was finally removed after it had dangled over the heads of journalists like the sword of Damocles for nearly 70 ears. It must be also pointed out that freedom of the press can not survive without democracy. Freedom of the press is the stall of life for any vital democracy. But, unfortunately, that Taiwan dogs losing its animal rights. In the latest case of cruelty to stray dogs, a local government-run dog pound in Tainan county has been accused of killing strays by drowning them. The Life Conservationist Association (LTA), which campaigns against animal cruelty, presented evidence the Control Yuan yesterday (Jan. 15, 1999) accusing the dog pound of using inhumane methods in violation of the animal protection law passed last October. The dog pound is under the jurisdiction of the Tainan county Environmental Bureau, which denied that drowning is a regular practice. According to the LTA staff at the pound regularly kill batches
of around a dozen dogs by putting them into a large metal cage,
lowering it into a water tank and leaving it there until the dogs
are drowned, a press taking up to 15 minutes.
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