Competition god pig gain thousands of jin, forced feeding and imprisonment, animal protection group control torture, guest committee: respect for sacrificial culture

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The commendation and loyalty Pavilion Yimin Festival in Hsinchu County, which has a history of 180 years, will be held this week. The Yimin ceremony, which connects 15 villages in the Hakka area in the north, from Xinwu Yangmei in the north to Beipu and Emei in the south, was designated as an important national folk custom in 2015, and it is the only national certified "intangible cultural asset" that belongs to the inheritance of Hakka village. it is of great indicator and literary value.

However, in recent years, animal conservation groups have criticized the "Divine Pig Competition" held in the righteous people's ceremony, arguing that the "Divine Pig Competition" distorts the essence of righteous people's sacrifice, and that in order to pursue weight and win prizes, competitive pigs are forced to feed and are forced to be imprisoned and unable to walk, causing great suffering to pigs and calling for the abolition of inhumane competition.

The god pig competition caused controversy among all parties, and the guest committee issued a statement saying, "the righteous people's ceremony is the main belief of the Hakkas, and the god pig competition is a part of the sacrificial culture. Please respect it from all walks of life." However, the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for the management of cultural assets, explained: "the Ministry of Culture announced that the 'commendation and loyalty Pavilion Yimin Festival ceremony' is an important folk custom, but it does not include the 'Divine Pig weight Competition'."

Wang Zhongshu, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Council of Agriculture, said that according to the management spirit of the Animal Protection Law, if there are acts such as forced feeding or iron frame pressure, it is already illegal, and it is suggested that the weight gain competition be abolished and raised in accordance with animal welfare standards, so as to avoid blurring the focus of the ceremonial activities and losing the real meaning of the righteous people's sacrifice.

The god pig displayed after slaughter increased the visibility of the ceremony as a result of farmers' raising and participating in the weight competition, which became part of the ceremony, but later led to the dilemma of inhumane farming. (photo courtesy of Animal Society Research Society) the competition god pig gained more than a thousand jin, and long-term imprisonment caused torture

The Taiwan Animal Research Society (hereinafter referred to as the "Animal Society") points out that the breeding process of the competition god pig is longer than that of the average pig, which can be as long as two or three years, and its weight can easily reach more than 1,000 jin, which is five or six times that of the average adult pig. Because the overweight does not prevent the pig from standing, press it on the pig with an iron frame or a wooden frame. The state of long-term imprisonment makes the so-called "god pig" endure long-term torture, and the long process of slaughtering in public also causes great pain to pigs.

In view of the pig breeding and feeding model of the competition, the social committee invited Donald Broom, a professor of animal welfare at the University of Cambridge, to study the mental and physiological trauma of the pig breeding and feeding model to animals. Donald Broom said that pigs are vertebrates, and the sense of pain in the cardiovascular and nervous system is very similar to that in humans. The way pigs weigh more than a kilogram will cause pigs to be unable to turn over or move on their own, prone to shock and bruising, as well as long-term oppression and pain.