With a quick motion of the hand, a spoken command and a stern look, Chris Leroux had the undivided attention of his pack. With all eyes fixed firmly on their leader, not one of the ex-strays moved a muscle as they waited for the next instruction.
Then Leroux turned his back and started to walk away. The dogs remained motionless, waiting patiently and confidently for him to come back. One word — “come” — and the dogs scurried towards Leroux, hopeful that they would be rewarded for their behavior.
Leroux is an English teacher from Canada whose passion for animal welfare has motivated him and his partner, Natasha Hodel, to put most of their earnings and savings into establishing the animal rescue organization BARK in Kaohsiung City.
“It is heartbreaking, what you see on the streets sometimes — especially knowing some of these animals were abandoned by their owners. But getting mad isn’t the solution,” he said as he stroked the back of one dog’s ears.
Homer, a healthy black dog, was emaciated and afflicted with a skin disease when Hodel and Leroux found him.
Homer and Chief are two of the dogs that have been lucky enough to find a new home, adopted by a friend of Leroux and Hodel. But many of the organization’s other ex-strays remain up for adoption.
Established in April, BARK began operations in Leroux and Hodel’s backyard. Just a few months later, the couple say things are running smoothly and they are making progress helping some of Kaohsiung’s strays escape life on the streets.
BARK not only tries to find shelters for animals in need, it works to educate the community and raise public awareness about the stray population.
One method that could help reduce the stray population is the Catch-Neuter-Release (CNR) method, Leroux said.
CNR is an option because there aren’t homes for every stray on the street, so animals are instead spayed or neutered and released where they were found.
The method is widely supported by animal welfare societies around the globe and some local governments in Taiwan as the most humane and sustainable way to deal with the stray population.
So far, with the help of volunteers, BARK has rescued and helped more than 200 injured and abused cats and dogs. BARK tries to offer hurt animals the best medical care possible.
“We make it very clear that we are not a dumping ground for unwanted animals and we will not accept animals whose owners simply don’t want them anymore,” said Leroux, who said he has been invited to various locations to promote CNR and responsible pet ownership.
Sometimes, when he receives calls about animals on the streets, Leroux said that rather than rushing out the door with a net and a cage, he tries to coach the caller on helping the animal. This way, Leroux says he can pass on his knowledge of animals, while helping with animal rescues.
Hodel and Leroux care for a handful of animals at home, while many of their other rescues are placed temporarily with families until a permanent home is found.
On the day of the interview, in addition to a group of dogs in the backyard, three palm-sized tabby kittens huddled with their mother in an oversize cage in the house. Another two rescues, a pair of grown cats, wandered around in the basement.
Leroux reached into the cage to comfort the nervous mother cat as she hissed.
“For some strays, once they get acclimated to humans, they can become wonderful house pets. You just need to be very patient with them,” he said.
As Hodel told stories about the cats they had rescued, it was clear she thought of them as part of the family.
Hodel remembers where and when each cat was found, what cuts and wounds they had and how each interacted with humans.
BARK may have plenty of heart, but it needs more volunteers and resources. To offset mounting medical bills and food expenses and to attract anyone interested in adopting a rescued stray, BARK holds an adoption day and flea market fundraiser at a pet store in Kaohsiung City each Sunday afternoon between 3pm and 7pm.
Helping BARK help animals is easy, Hodel said. Anyone is welcome to rummage through their home and donate what they no longer need or want to the flea market. Proceeds go toward caring for the animals, she said.
For more information, visit www.atkaohsiung.org. The Web site features pictures of animals in need of adoption.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not