Late into the night one Sunday last month, as people in Taiwan were bracing themselves for Typhoon Fung-wong, a group of about 200 expatriates gathered in a pub on Taipei’s An-he Road to participate in a fundraising quiz night.
The group was summoned by Sean McCormack, a British native who founded Animals Taiwan (AT) three-and-a-half years ago.
The shelter, which gained non-governmental organization (NGO) status in June and hosts between 40 to 60 dogs depending on adoption rates, has served as a channel for expatriates to give back to Taiwan, which for some has been home for as much as 15 years.
“Originally, Sean was only hosting stray dogs in his own apartment in Taipei, until he got evicted from his residence,” said Kim Phillips, the writer of the AT newsletter and an English lecturer at Chinese Culture University, who has been with the organization for two-and-a-half years.
One day, McCormack met Jane Goodall, the British primatologist, whose involvement in environmental and humanitarian affairs has gained her international fame, during a visit in Taiwan. The meeting inspired him to set up his own animal shelter, Phillips, who comes from Canada, said.
But setting up AT has not always been a smooth ride, McCormack said.
“Originally, a guy named Eric started the shelter with me, but he quit after a month; while 10 people showed up for the first monthly organization meeting. All of them quit within weeks,” he said.
Money has also been a problem for AT, volunteers said.
The games nights, which attract mostly expatriates who come for a night of fun and to donate for a worthy cause, are an important source of income for the shelter, said Liza Milne, from Britain, who was the organization’s treasurer until she handed the role over to a certified accountant after the AT became an NGO.
AT is sustained by donations, sponsorships, fees paid when people adopt an animal and fundraising events, such as a regular Sunday flea market run by Milne, she said.
“We pull in about NT$200,000 a month, which just breaks us even, since our basic expenditures [including salary for three local full-time staff and rent] is around NT$160,000 per month. Depending on the number of animals in the shelter, we also need NT$20,000 to NT$30,000 for food,” she said.
Some months, when AT gets an injured or sick animal, medical expenditures are also added to the operating costs, she said.
The situation can get even worse, as “unlike some animal shelters, we don’t kill our animals except on very rare occasions,” Phillips said. “So some dogs live in AT for years.”
The tradition started with AT’s very first rescue, which involved a mutt named Lazarus, whose life was hanging on a thread from a long list of medical problems. McCormack was the one who found it.
“Lazarus [the name of a man in the Bible who was raised from the dead by Jesus] was a complete mess when we found him. You can see pictures of him on our Web site [animalstaiwan.org/rescues.htm]. But by the time he got out and found an owner, he was happy, energetic and loving,” he said.
In the three years that AT has been in operation, only eight dogs have been put down, McCormack said.
“Even for animals that are blind or have only two legs, as long as there is life in their eyes, we would give them a try because it is not our job to take away their desire to live. We have always been amazed by their recoveries,” he said.
As such, aside from the full-time staff, all AT participants are strictly volunteers, said Peter Dearman, AT’s Webmaster, who is also an English teacher from Canada.
Another problem AT has faced is public ignorance of animals, Phillips said.
“Some people too freely dump their dogs because the puppies turned into dogs and are not cute anymore, or because their pets behave badly, or because it is not convenient for them to keep dogs anymore,” she said.
The situation is especially prevalent in pure breeds, where owners expect to have “perfect dogs, without behavioral problems even with no training,” McCormack said. “Which is just like dumping dogs out of the owners’ own stupidity and ignorance, because no dog would behave without proper training and training them is the responsibility of the owners.”
While AT volunteers all agree that Taiwan has come a long way in the past decade, they also say that a lot remains to be done.
“You don’t see caged animals as much. Some people are changing their way of interacting with their pets and are beginning to treat them like family. If anything, some people are starting to baby their dogs, which may not necessarily be a good thing if it is too extreme,” McCormack said.
However, “there is always going to be stray or mistreated dogs,” Phillips said.
To combat the problem, education is key, she said.
“One of future key focuses of AT [will be] to run an educational program that teaches the public compassion for animals, as well as how to care for and train them,” she said, adding that the program — which she heads — will be launched sometime this month.
On the Internet, AT is also compiling its own “Wikipedia” on dog-care and training, Dearman said, adding that anyone can edit or add to it. Another vital part of the education program is a neutering campaign, where AT aims to promote the importance of neutering pets as well as strays so that the stray problem can be mitigated, Milne said.
With AT gaining NGO status, the volunteers are expecting bigger funding and greater involvement for the organization.
“As an NGO, we can now apply for governmental funding, receive money from international charities, as well as get corporate sponsorship,” McCormack said.
From 15 dogs crammed in a small apartment to a certified NGO with a full-size shelter, McCormack has come a long way in his work with animals in Taiwan. Asked why he stuck to the cause, McCormack said: “I have always liked and felt dedicated to animals and I want to see a change in Taiwan.”
“Whenever you feel like quitting, it is a test of whether you are going to succeed [in your pursuit] or not, those that give up do not succeed,” he said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,