(Press release) While the general public may not know much about “926 Dog Lovers’ Day”, animal activists from around the world are no strangers to this annual celebration. In 2015, World Dog Alliance (WDA) registered 26th September as Dog Lovers’ Day. “926” sounds very similar to “Dog Easy Happy” in Cantonese, the goal of the celebration is to remind people of the fact that dogs are man's best friends and we should never mistreat them. The “926” celebration is held in different countries and cities every year and it has soon become an important event among the animal activists circle.
Genlin (aka Peng Hong Ling), founder of World Dog Alliance and oil painting artist, and Ms. Wang Yumin, councilwoman of the Taiwan Legislative Yuan, rang the giant bell for three times respectively to start off the celebration. The first bell sound represents the happiness and joy that dogs bring to human; the second bell sound represents the prayer that human would pay more attention to the animal welfare; the third bell sound represents the wish of the success of “explicit legislation to ban dog meat consumption”.
During the celebration, Genlin introduced WDA’s campaigns over the past few years, including:
Apart from the previous works, Genlin also talked about WDA’s future plans including:
In her speech, Councilwoman Wang Yumin said that maybe it was destiny that the dog meat ban was passed on 11th April 2017, which happens to be her birthday by coincidence. She believes the God wants her to continue fighting for animal welfare in the future. Recently, she successfully promoted the “zero- euthanasia” policy for stray dogs with the aim to rehome every rescued dog.
Shen Jian, board director of WDA, explained the ever-increasing awareness towards dog welfare in China. The population of pet owners in China has surged in the past decade --- currently there are 150 million pet dogs in China while the annual profit of the pet industry has reached 150 billion RMB. It supports the notion that Chinese people have grown to be more fond of animals and are more willing to spend money on them.
To sum up the day, Genlin shared his motto, “there are good and bad people, but there are only good dogs in the world.”
© Liana Technologies