Background

In early 1992, a brutal leisure game known as Fish Hooking began prevailing around Taiwan, meaning that live fish in a captive pond are hooked without bait, then getting injured or even dead.  In order to eradicate the so-called culture of sport, Master SHIH, CHAO-HWEI（釋昭慧）, the Founding President of the Association, invited many experts  to initiate an "Anti-Fish-Hooking Movement" supported by all walks of lives. Due to the mass movement's efforts, the former Premier of the Executive Yuan began mobilizing different levels of government to stop fish hooking. 

   However, through the lens of the conflict among Taiwanese people, many participants in the movement were deeply convinced that many people in Taiwan still disrespected all lives, and ultimately, would even take their deaths for granted.  For an overall improvement of animal protection in Taiwan, Life Conservationist Association(LCA) was founded in January 1993, and since then has expressed the notion of "Animal protection and care for life".

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lcatwn

Objectives 

   Life Conservationist Association (LCA)'s mission is to promote animal rights, strive for animal welfare, conserve wildlife and maintain ecological balance. LCA strongly believe that all living creatures are created equal; with this, we aim to protect animals from captivity, abuse, abandonment, or slaughter through the promotion of legislation and education. Our movement is to establish basic rights to live and respect for every animal.

Why do we promote animal rights?

   Human beings and animals share the world where none could survive on their own. However, for centuries, animals have been seen as objects that are insentient and unable to vote. In order to revolutionize the way animals are treated and seen as, we have spread the belief, "Caring For Animals Is The First Step To Caring For Lives", promoted a series of education activities, guided the public to understand animals are equal to human beings.  In doing so, we believe the entire human community would be rooted deeply in social morality, and then turn towards a brand new world where human beings and animals are liberated.      

Our improvement goals for different kinds of animals

• Companion Animals: to educate families on how to properly care for their pets.
• Stray Animals: to promote no slaughter at animal shelters and find them loving homes.
• Wild Animals: to advocate refusal to eat, to buy, and to feed; as well as no trading or killing.
• Farm Animals: to improve animal welfare and urge rejection to eat meat produced cruelly.
• Experimental Animals: to save them from unnecessary deaths and harm.

Strategies

• Start a strategic alliance with organizations and like-minded individuals to attain the short-, medium-, long-term objectives.
• Provide suggestions toward incumbents of all levels of governments and the Opposition leader to exert influence over policy.
• Unite with central parliament and civil societies to motivate central government by initiative, campaign, lobby, and demonstration for better progression.
• Work with local legislative delegations, civil societies, and citizens to supervise local government on animal protection, showing respect for life and animal welfare, by evaluation and initiative.
• Promote ideals and actions for all citizens to establish a real civil society.

Specific working policies

1. Wild animals:
(1) To supervise the implementation of wild animals conservation laws.
(2) To endeavor for the preservation and protection of wild animals habitat.
(3) Educational and promotional activities on "No Business Transaction, No Killing", and "Refuse to Eat, Refuse to Buy, and Refuse to Adopt" for wild animals.

2. Economic animals
(1) To supervise the implementation of animals protection laws.
(2) To intensify the improvement on farm animals welfare.
(3) To appeal to the consumers to change their dietary habit such as to consume less meat or vegetarian meals.

3. Companion animals
(1) To promote the "Three No" policies of "No abandonment, No Torture, and No Killing of the Companion Animals".
(2) The objection of Euthanasia and the promotion of the "Three Breeding" policies of "Adopting, Hospice and Appropriate Care of the stray animals.

4. Experimental animals
(1) To encourage digital dissection program to replace live animals experiments.
(2) To lobby proper legislation to ban insignificant and brutal animal experiments.
(3) To press the experimental animal ethical committee to leverage their supervisory duties.

5. Education and promotion
(1) Publication of the annual Animals' Voice of Taiwan.
(2) Publications of books, video tapes, cards, manuals and posters.
(3) Construction of the website with regular electronic newspaper.
(4) Delivery public speeches at schools and teachers' seminar. Assisting teachers and students to establish animal protection communities.
(5) To conduct seminar and training camps.

Presidents of LCA (1993- )

●1993~1996：Master SHIH, CHAO-HWEI（釋昭慧）
resume：Dean of the Academy of Social Sciences of Hsuan Chuang University（玄奘大學社會科學院院長）

●1996~1999：Master SHIH, CHAO-HWEI（釋昭慧）
resume：Dean of the Academy of Social Sciences of Hsuan Chuang University（玄奘大學社會科學院院長）

●1999~2002：Master SHIH, SING-KUANG（釋性廣）
resume：Dean of Buddhist HongShi College（佛教弘誓學院院長）、principal of FaJie Publishing house（法界出版社負責人）

●2002~2005：Master SHIH, SING-KUANG（釋性廣）
resume：Dean of Buddhist HongShi College（佛教弘誓學院院長）、principal of FaJie Publishing house（法界出版社負責人）

●2005~2008：Master SHIH, CHUAN-DAO（釋傳道）
resume：Chairman of Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia Foundation（中華佛教百科文獻基金會董事長）、Abbot of Miaoxin Temple, Tainan（台南妙心寺住持）

●2008~2011：Master SHIH, CHUAN-DAO（釋傳道）
resume：Chairman of Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia Foundation（中華佛教百科文獻基金會董事長）、Abbot of MiaoXin Temple, Tainan（台南妙心寺住持）

●2011~2014：Master SHIH, JIAN-AN（釋見岸）
resume：Abbot of FaYin Lecture Hall（法印講堂住持）、Director of Promotion of Buddhist HongShi College（佛教弘誓學院推廣部主任）

●2014~2017：Master SHIH,JIAN-AN（釋見岸）
resume：Abbot of FaYin Lecture Hall（法印講堂住持）、Director of Promotion of Buddhist HongShi College（佛教弘誓學院推廣部主任）

●2017~2020：CHANG, CHANG-TER（張章得）
resume：Director of HongShi Buddhist Cultural and Educational Foundation（弘誓文教基金會董事）、Former President of Rotary Club of Yanping Taipei（台北延平扶輪社前社長）

●2020~2023：CHANG, CHANG-TER（張章得）
resume：Director of HongShi Buddhist Cultural and Educational Foundation（弘誓文教基金會董事）、Former President of Rotary Club of Yanping Taipei（台北延平扶輪社前社長）

●2023~2026：WU, CHUANG-HSIEN（吳宗憲）

resume：Professor of Department of Public Administration and Management, National University of Tainan（國立臺南大學行政管理學系教授）

Practices and Results：since 1993

Execution & Legislation

●Promote "Non-governmental Version of Wildlife Conservation Act"
To Emphasize prohibition on captivity of wildlife, the Act was passed in 1994 and amended in 2009, to ensure wildlife's rights and to prohibit any display of protected wildlife and their derivatives.

●Launch the movement of "Refuse to Watch Circus Animal Shows"
We had boycotted foreign circuses and their shows in Taiwan several times since 1995, and exposed circus animal abuse. In 2007, we facilitated the amendment to Wildlife Conservation Act to prohibit circuses from transporting protected wildlife for performance.

●Urge for "Animal Protection Act"
In October 1998, Taiwan became the 54th country to enact the Animal Protection Act after the tremendous efforts from the alliance of LCA and 21 animal protection groups.

●Succeed in "Prevent the Legalization of Horseracing" 
We uncovered that those under the name of benevolence were plotting to legalize gambling on horseracing to gain windfall profits. Since then, Animal Protection Act now includes "Article of Anti-horseracing".

●Call for "Amendment to Prohibition on Manufacturing and Selling Foothold Traps"
We ran the campaign "unBEARable: the miserable world" to publicize the seriousness to take control of foothold traps. In June 2011, the Amendment was passed, which paved the important way for eliminating foothold traps.
We promote the addition of Article 14-2 to the Animal Protection Law in June 2011,that no one may manufacture, sell, display or export foothold traps without the permission of the central authority.