The Hualien County Government on Saturday said it would try to relocate 50 dogs that were being cared for by a private shelter in the county, after the shelter’s owner passed away.
Chu Su-mei (朱素梅), 68, sometimes cared for up to 100 stray dogs at a time, which she fed using donations collected through her shelter’s Facebook page, Aunty Chu’s Dog Shelter in Hualien Needs Our Help (花蓮朱阿姨狗園需要你我的幫忙).
Hualien Department of Agriculture Director Chen Shu-wen (陳淑雯) said the county would first communicate with Chu’s family to see if they would continue to care for the dogs, the Central News Agency reported on Saturday.
Chu’s passing is very sad, not just because of the loss of this selfless woman, but also for how her shelter demonstrates the seriousness of Taiwan’s problem with stray animals. Council of Agriculture statistics from August last year put the number of stray dogs at just more than 155,000, an increase of 6.19 percent from 2018. Animal rights groups have said the actual number of strays in Taiwan could be double what official statistics show.
Taipei City Councilor Yang Ching-yu (楊靜宇), who is a practicing veterinarian, said in December last year that animal shelters were overcrowded, with five to seven dogs in each pen at the city’s Tanmei shelter. There was also an increasing number of strays dying each year in shelters, despite a euthanasia ban put into effect in 2017, he said.
A number of factors contribute to Taiwan’s high number of strays, most significantly pet abandonment and low rates of microchipping and sterilization. Abandonment has become even more prevalent since the euthanasia ban went into effect, as people feel less guilty about ditching their pets, Animal Protection Association of the Republic of China secretary-general Huang Ching-jung (黃慶榮) told Taiwan News in September last year.
People might abandon dogs when they get difficult to care for in old age, or simply because they are not the cute puppies they once were. Sometimes dogs used for security on job sites are abandoned when sites are shut down or move. Other times, pet owners do not want to take their animal when moving to a smaller or far-away place. Whatever the reason, clearly it is too easy for people to adopt pets and later discard them.
The issue must be tackled. Such a high number of stray cats and dogs can become a health concern, as strays can carry rabies or other diseases, damage property or attack people who come near them.
Animal protection officials said they would continue trapping and neutering stray dogs. The policy should be complemented with better enforcement of laws that aim to prevent pet abandonment. Pet stores and private breeders should also be prohibited from breeding and selling dogs until the number of strays comes under control. A tax on purchased animals could be considered to encourage adoption of strays.
Taipei and other localities have encouraged schools and other public institutions to adopt strays. This is a good way to help boost adoption and to give strays a more fulfilling life than they would have in a shelter. However, adoption will ultimately be useful only if shelters are not forced to take in an ever-increasing number of dogs from the street and from pet owners.
Reducing the number of strays requires a multi-tiered approach, involving the reduction of the number of puppies being born through a large-scale sterilization campaign, and tight regulations on shops and private breeders. Tackling strays means changing the mentality around pet ownership. People must be taught to view their pets as valued and loved family members, not consumer items.
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry spoke at the Yushan Forum in Taipei on Monday, saying that while global conflicts were causing economic strife in the world, Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region and offers strategic opportunities for small island nations such as Fiji, as well as support in the fields of public health, education, renewable energy and agricultural technology. Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with Fiji, but it is one of the small island nations covered by the NSP. Chaudhry said that Fiji, as a sovereign nation, should support
RSS