(Press Release) 926 Dog Lovers’ Day --- Oil paintings calling for dog meat ban

(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 26^th 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:

1. WDA successfully secured 100,000 signatures in the UK parliament petition, which led to the abolishment of Moran Market, the biggest dog meat market in South Korea.
2. Italy’s law amendment changed the nature of dog theft from civil to criminal offence, all thanks to the joint efforts of WDA and Leidaa, an Italian animal protection organization.
3. Alcee Hastings, congressman of the U.S. Congress, introduced a legislative bill proposing a ban of dog meat in the United States.
4. Documentary “Eating Happiness” exposed the ugly truth of dog meat practice in Asia.
5. Taiwan passed the law of dog and cat meat ban, setting a good role model of a civilized society.

Apart from the previous works, Genlin also talked about WDA’s future plans including:

1. Organizing a global tour for his oil painting exhibition.
2. Petition and peaceful protest march in Pyeongchang, host city of the Winter Olympics in 2018.
3. Urge the South Korea’s president to legislate a dog meat ban.
4. Invite international famous singers to hold joint concerts for animal welfare.
5. Lobby legislation in South Korea Parliament.

In her speech, Councilwoman Wang Yumin said that maybe it was destiny that the dog meat ban was passed on 11^th 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.”