A 150kg pig who resides at the intersection of Yanping N Road and Minzu W Road has become part of the community in Datong District, Taipei City.
The pig, named Happy, lives alone in an unused concrete house. Happy is well liked by the local community and fed by stallholders at the local market. In fine weather Happy finds shade near buildings and often goes on strolls as far as Taipei Bridge. No matter where she goes, Happy always manages to find her way home.
Many mistake Happy for a wild pig and the Guoshun Borough (國順) chief has in the past made calls for help to police, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Council of Agriculture. However, as the matter remained unresolved for more than two years, local residents have grown accustomed to coexisting with the porker.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Happy’s owner, Hu Wan-chi (胡萬吉), said he purchased Happy from a pet shop on Heping W Road three years ago for NT$4,500. The owner had told him that Happy, who weighed 30kg at the time, was a miniature pig that would not grow longer than 100cm. However, a year later, Happy had become so large that she could no longer climb the stairs to Hu’s fifth floor apartment.
Hu remembers Happy’s earlier days with fondness. Back then, Happy would follow Hu around. In hot weather, Hu bathed Happy often and Happy was obedient and clean.
The small concrete building where Happy resides is an empty ice storage area from the time when Hu was an ice vendor. After Happy became too big, Hu was unable to keep her at home and yet loath to send her to a slaughterhouse.
Unable to find a new owner for Happy, Hu made the empty ice storage Happy’s new home.
Luckily, Happy is well liked and often fed by locals who give her milk and leftovers, Hu said.
Once a young woman even hired workmen to mend Happy’s house, he said.
Hu is reserved about the fact that he has no choice but to allow Happy to live on the street. He also refused to be photographed with the pig. He says that he has not given Happy a bath in the last two years and that Happy has become so overweight that she can barely open his eyes.
However, when Hu walks past, Happy always greets him joyfully, he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS