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Taipei blesses souls of dead dogs

Master Shih Ti-chiao, director of the Compassion and Willpower of the Earth Treasure Foundation, yesterday held a ceremony at the Taipei Animal Shelter to comfort the souls of stray dogs put to death there. PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES

The Taipei City Government yesterday held a Buddhist memorial service in commemoration of the city's dead animals to mark the approach of the Ghost Festival.

The Ghost Festival, which is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, falls on Sept. 2 this year.

This is the third year the city held such an event and the first time the event has been officiated by the city mayor.

Addressing the ceremony at the Neihu animal shelter yesterday afternoon, Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the city held the event to show its sincere respect for all animals.

"The East and West share very different views about the notion of death. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, or the process of coming into existence as a different mortal creature in the next life. We hope today's ceremony will help those animals which died over the past year from various causes to enjoy a better life in their next life."

Ma also praised the shelter's achievement over the past year.

"The purpose of its existence is not to kill more stray animals but to help them find a suitable home. Although there's always room for improvement, it's done a pretty good job," he said.

The Animal Protection Law (動物保護法) went into effect in Nov. 1999 and the shelter was established in Aug. 2000. The city says that it has brought victory to the city's efforts to bring the stray dog population under control.

Statistics show that the number of stray dogs in the city has decreased from 70,000 in 1998 to 50,000 in 1999, and from 30,000 last year to 18,000 this year.

Last year's neutering rate for domestic cats and dogs reached 31 percent, the highest in the country. The city's animal adoption rate is also the highest in the nation -- up from 35 percent in 1999 to 42 percent last year.

The city also had the nation's second-highest number of registered dogs in 2000 -- recorded at 91,982. The number of the city's stray dogs which are put to sleep is the fifth-lowest among the nation's 23 counties and cities -- about 800 per month or 10,000 per year.

Lin Chin-chung (林進忠), director of the city's Animal Sanitation Quarantine Office (動物衛生檢驗所), said that many reasons contributed to the decrease in the number of stray dogs in the city.

"We see more people interested in adopting stray animals and becoming aware of the importance of neutering and registering their pets. Putting animals to sleep accounts for only a small portion of the reduction in the number," Lin said.

According to Lin, the shelter and the city's 154 veterinary hospitals have temporarily sheltered about 8,000 stray dogs as of July, about 2,000 were put to sleep or died of natural causes and about 3,000 were adopted.
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