Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou (
Gou, who heads a multibillion dollar computer chip and software empire, said he was motivated to help with the country's stray dog rescue effort when a teacher named Chia Hung-chiu (賈鴻秋) knelt in front his office building for hours of in May, asking people to help stop animal shelters from killing the unadopted animals.
COMPLICATED
"I was on the airplane when I heard the news. I immediately called Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and said I wanted the county to stop killing stray dogs," Gou recalled, adding he later felt discouraged when he realized the stray animal problem was a lot more complicated than simply implementing a no-kill policy.
Through his Younglin Foundation (永齡基金會), Gou formed a working alliance between NTU and the Taipei County Government.
NTU President Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) estimated the project, dubbed "Care for Lives, Protect Animals," will be completed in three years. During this time, the university hopes to eradicate the country's stray animal problem by working closely with international experts who are familiar with various kinds of tactics.
10,000 EVERY YEAR
Chou said there are 10,000 new stray animals in Taipei County alone every year and 70,000 countrywide. The cost of the caretaking fee for each animal is roughly NT$30,000. According to that calculation, the government will have to budget NT$2.1 billion (US$64 million) each year to keep strays alive in shelters.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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