The Taiwan Guide Dog Association (TGDA) got on the bus in Taipei City yesterday for an awareness-raising event.
Two guide dogs, Journey and Diane, rode the number 52 bus operated by Shin Shin Bus Company with association members in tow showing bus riders the correct way to interact with guide dogs and their owners.
"Guide dogs are still so rare in Taiwan that people do not know the proper way to act around them," said the association's publicist Joyce Feng (
"Guide dogs are highly-trained animals. People need not fear that they will attack or otherwise behave inappropriately," Feng said. "But they are working dogs, so please do not distract them or pet them without the permission of the owner."
There are only 20 guide dogs in service in the country, but there are more than 50,000 blind people, according to the association.
Even though a guide dog is not right for every blind person, that number is still way too low, Feng said.
"Because we don't have our own breeding and training programs, all of the guide dogs in this country have to be imported,"Feng said. "The number of guide dogs in this country should be closer to 500."
Twenty-two-year-old Chiu Wen-shen (
"In addition to distracting Journey, it's an invasion of my privacy," Chiu said. "I usually don't mind letting people pet Journey, but please ask first."
Even though it has been more than three years since the Legislative Yuan enacted amendments to the Protection Act for the Handicapped and Disabled (
"Sometimes, the bus driver will not even give me the time to explain that Journey is a guide dog. They drive off as soon as they see him," Chiu said.
Chiu said that he was turned away by a bus driver as recently as earlier this month.
The law is on his side, and Chiu has the relevant parts of the act printed right on the back of his proof of disability card. But that does not stop some restaurants from finding excuses not to let him in with his guide dog.
"They'll say `we're so sorry, but we have kids here who are afraid of dogs,'" Chiu said.
Despite the occasional rejection, Chiu said having Journey to help him has changed his life for the better.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
RSS