KBFA Taiwan

By Kerstin Burkhart and Florian Antoni

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

During a visit to Taiwan, we were confused by the apparent social trend of treating dogs like small children, dressing and grooming them, carrying them around no matter where you are, and continuously taking selfies with them. We became increasingly aware that dogs are kept as fashion accessories by many young people. The moment we entered Keelung Road, a place where “pet shops” can be found one after another (this is where we took the pictures shown in this blog post), we knew we had to raise our voices.
In this final project, we invented a campaign called “Dogs Are Not Accessories,” that aims to fight the fast fashion pet industry in Taiwan. With the help of narrative structures and campaign strategies based on the scientific evidence of animal suffering underpinning this trend, we developed various targeted communication strategies and campaign actions.

Background
This project was born out of the conviction that environmental education need not only be more visible and widely established, but also operate on a tangible level in order to create sensitivity and awareness for global environmental problems. In Taiwan, a fast-fashion pet trend has emerged so rapidly that appropriate breeding conditions and suitable welfare conditions of dogs can no longer be guaranteed.
The animals often seem to serve as a substitute for children or fashion accessories, and it is for these reasons that extremely young animals sell particularly well. Subsequently, more and more “pet factories” have materialized, in which young animals are separated from their parents only a few days or weeks after birth and are then sold on to retailers. The retailers then present the puppies in their shop windows, with seemingly little regard for the conditions necessary to ensure physical and psychological wellbeing. Sadly, this is not where things end. Due to the transient nature of fashion and a lack of consumer education, foresight, and commitment (which is often used as a [flawed] argument for purchasing a pet instead of having a child), the dogs are frequently neglected, passed on to an animal shelter, or even turned out on to the streets.

Our Methodological Approach
Campaigns have the power to address people who would not otherwise be exposed to or actively approach or respond to a particular issue. Campaigns thus serve as a very suitable approach for our issue. Using WordPress and Elementor, we created a website that introduces the imaginary organization “KBFA” and presents the individual steps of their campaign actions. The campaign was envisioned to run from mid-2016 to early 2017, as these were the years in which the Taiwanese ban on euthanizing shelter animals finally came into force. The ban is included in the hypothetical campaign as a milestone of success.
The other problems raised in our research, such as inadequate welfare and breeding standards in the industry, are unfortunately still of very real concern today.
For more information, take a look at the website.