To promote the welfare of stray dogs and control feral animal populations on its campus, National Chi Nan University (NCNU) in Puli in Nantou County has launched a “campus dog” program.
The initiative is aimed at keeping stray dogs as campus guardians, and is the first of its kind among local universities.
With air of melancholia and a pair of innocent-looking eyes, one canine guardian, named Rice Sausage, has proven very popular among students, who affectionately call their canine friends the “angels of NCNU,” the university said.
Photo: Courtesy of National Chi Nan University
The school’s campus covers about 150 hectares of land, and is home to a number of stray dogs, the university said.
To manage the strays, the university started the campus dog program in 2002, adopting dogs that had exhibited a stable character and friendly demeanor, the university said, adding that five dogs have been officially adopted so far.
Dogs are by nature territorial, and it is normal for the campus dogs to ward off feral animals from outside of the campus, thereby enhancing campus security and prevent animal-disease epidemics, school officials said.
Photo: CNA
The five adoptees have become an integral part of campus life, and are mostly seen around restaurants, convenience stores and a complex deep inside the campus, the school officials said.
Members of the school’s animal welfare club took photographs and wrote advertising leaflets for each campus dog, and each one wears a distinctive collar and accessories.
The school added that a number of other dogs are kept in kennels on campus, and the club is looking for suitable people to adopt one of the “frat-pack.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai