Pei Su: The Pioneer

"As children, we learnt respect for our elders and for authority, we learnt etiquette too, but rarely was it suggested that we extend any feelings towards animals, or indeed that animals have feelings. And because of this, many children in Asia grow up assuming animals exist to serve us, feed us, entertain us and clothe us; animals are useful 'moving objects', a literal translation of the Chinese word for animal." - Pei Su Pei Su is truly a pioneer. In the early 90s, she was involved with the forming of Taiwan's very first animal right's organization. 30 years later, it still exists and Taiwan's animal right's movement is one of the fastest growing in Asia.  In 2011, Pei co-founded ACTAsia – an organization that's dedicated to creating change in China through humane education. What that means is that they go into schools and train the teachers to teach a 6-year program called Caring for Life Education. The kids are in the program from ages 6 -12 and they learn animal welfare, empathy toward animals, environmental issues, social welfare, and citizenship. To date, 80,000 kids have gone through Caring For Life and 2,000 teachers have been trained. Pei believes that things won't really change for animals in China until people start to view them differently – and, the best people for that job are the children – as they will create change for generations to come.