But volunteers were also left feeling helpless when they visited the animal shelters after the typhoon.
Dubbed “a forgotten world” by volunteers of the Taiwan Life Caring and Animal Rescue Organization, footage of a shelter in Rente Township (仁德) of Tainan County showed about 500 strays, including new-born puppies, standing in their own feces.
Many of the dogs were exposed to days of torrential rain during the typhoon because they were chained or caged, the organization said.
Although the owner of the Tainan shelter claimed she cared about the strays, she admitted to the organization that she only came by to feed them once every four days.
“A lot of junk was piled up on the dog cages that had become rotten after the rain. As we removed it, as many cockroaches and spiders as I’d seen in my life came out ... it was horrible,” said one volunteer as he described his participation in the organization’s relief efforts.
“When you see [the strays] suffering in front of you, you feel like donating whatever you have to the shelter, hoping that the animals would have a place called home,” said the chief executive officer of the organization, called Tiger.
The organization offered to provide several million NT dollars to help relocate the strays, but the shelter owner rejected the aid for undisclosed personal reasons, Tiger said.
Despite the bad news, there was some good news.
As the central and local governments were preoccupied with reconstruction work and village relocation in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, animal rights activists also began reconstruction of some of the shelters.
The Animal Rescue Team Taiwan had given priority to the reconstruction of eight shelters under the Kaoping Bridge that were expected to cost NT$300,000.
Netizens on the nation’s largest bulletin board system, PTT, also continued to raise money for food and new cages for the shelters.
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