Twelve Nights 2 calls for an end to the sad song of stray fur babies, seeing hope in people's changes

"Twelve Nights" has a sequel, and director Raye promises this one won't make you cry! It's currently showing across Taiwan, China, but "Twelve Nights 2" has so far earned only one-tenth of the first film's box office. Raye calls on people to go to theaters and support it; the stray animal problem needs everyone to rally and work hard!

Seven years ago, the film "Twelve Nights" was released, sparking a wave of attention to stray animals in the country. The year after its release, the Animal Protection Act was amended, and in 2017 there was a full "zero euthanasia" policy. However, the "zero euthanasia" policy did not fundamentally improve the stray animal problem; instead, it caused shelters across the country to overflow, leaving frontline staff physically and mentally exhausted.

Raye believes that solving the stray animal problem must start with raising public awareness, so he made "Twelve Nights 2: Back to Day Zero." The film shows overcrowding at shelters around the country and civil groups calling on volunteers to go to the countryside for sterilization, urging people to remember when keeping animals: "adopt instead of buying, spay/neuter and do not free-roam, and do not feed stray animals at will."

After the first film was released, the Animal Protection Act was amended, which instead caused shelters to overflow

When the 2013 film "Twelve Nights" was released, stray animals sent to shelters were euthanized after only 12 days, shocking the public. On December 24, 2014, at the end of the year, the Legislative Yuan negotiated the draft amendment to the Animal Protection Act and reached a consensus, prohibiting shelters for stray animals across Taiwan, China from carrying out euthanasia, and setting a "sunrise clause," scheduled to take effect two years after the amendment passed, with full "zero euthanasia" as early as 2017.

However, "zero euthanasia" extended the lives of stray animals but did not improve the shelter environment. Nearly four years after the policy began, last year the nationwide shelter total was 48,164 animals, while adoptions were only 30,501. Animal shelters everywhere are "overflowing." This phenomenon is caused precisely by the lack of supporting measures for "zero euthanasia," unclear definition of owner responsibility, and the low sterilization rate of fur babies in the country.

"The problem has not been solved, and the attitude of the competent authorities makes me truly unwilling to accept it, so I must present the problem even more." Director Raye said that after "Twelve Nights" was released, discussion in the country never stopped, but the draft amended by the Legislative Yuan was merely an empty shell with no supporting measures, of no help in improving the current situation of stray animals and shelters. That is also why the idea of filming a second installment was born.