The EAST made the remarks when releasing findings of its survey study of slaughterhouses around the island conducted over the past three years.

The EAST joined forces with dozens of animal rights protection organizations to investigate 72 slaughter lines of public slaughterhouses in 21 counties and cities around the island between June 2005 and March this year. They found that some 76 percent or 55 slaughter lines still use traditional cruel methods to kill pigs. This equates to some 6.5 millions pigs being brutally slaughtered in Taiwan each year.

Chu Tzeng-hung, chairman of the EAST, issued findings of the survey at a press conference together with undercover footage showing illegal cruel practices are continuing in Taiwan's slaughterhouses.

Tzeng said only six of the 27 public slaughterhouses around the island kill their pigs in a humane way, namely by making the pigs lose consciousness with an electric shock so that they feel no pain when they are slaughtered.

The pigs at the other slaughterhouses are killed in a cruel manner, Tzeng said, explaining that the pigs are first hung upside down by one of their legs and then beaten unconscious with a stick before being slaughtered.

After watching video footage released by the EAST concerning how Taiwan's slaughterhouses kill their pigs, several lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union promised to propose an amendment to the Animal Protection Law, so as to better protect those animals raised for economic purposes.

Several of the woman lawmakers were even brought to tears while watching the cruel treatment of the animals at slaughterhouses.

Hsiao Bi-khim, a DPP legislator, said that as a ruling party lawmaker, she feels ashamed that the government has failed to punish the owners of the slaughterhouses that treat the animals so mercilessly. She promised to work with other lawmakers to push for an amendment to the Animal Protection Law to better protect animals.

At the press conference, the EAST also urged the government to honor the Year of the Pig by ensuring humane slaughter codes are being properly enforced in local slaughterhouses.

Meanwhile, Amy Firth, Farm Welfare Manager of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, of which the EAST is a member society, said at the press conference, "The suffering shown in this video is illegal and completely unnecessary. Taiwan has Codes of Practice governing the slaughter of farm animals, and the government should help end the suffering once and for all by enforcing these codes."

She added, "It would be a fitting honor in this Year of the Pig, for the Taiwan Government to now back up it's good intentions with good enforcement to end this cruelty to pigs."

WSPA is a federation of over 700 animal welfare organizations operating in more than 170 countries around the world. Over 60 billion farm animals are raised and killed annually, most in cruel inhumane conditions, and WSPA is campaigning to stop cruel intensive farming practices and for the introduction of humane slaughter techniques.

In response to the calls, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture said that the bureau will invite representatives from slaughterhouses to review their current slaughtering operations, and will immediately impose successive fines of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 on those found using cruel ways to kill pigs.

In 2006, the bureau collected fines of NT$4.325 million after completing as many as 814 inspections.