Despite disruptions to transportation caused by Typhoon Morakot, an abused dog was put on a US-bound flight at the last minute to receive psychotherapy and find a new home there, animal rescue volunteers said on Sunday.
“Mico is scheduled to arrive in San Francisco this evening,” said Chang Ya-hui (張雅惠), a volunteer with the Animal Rescue Team Taiwan, a Kaohsiung-based animal protection group.
When he was spotted near an industrial park in Gangshan Township (岡山) in Kaohsiung County in April, Mico had a rubber cord around his neck that was strangling him, Chang said.
His trachea was broken, his neck was as thin as a chicken’s and his head was swollen like a pig’s, Chang said.
Although his life was saved by emergency surgery after the cord was removed, he is still psychologically scarred, Chang said.
“It seemed that he could not overcome the mental trauma. Whether he was in the animal hospital or being taken by our volunteers from the shelter for a walk outdoors, all he would do is curl up in a corner and tremble incessantly,” Chang said.
Although Mico was traumatized, he was not aggressive, Chang said, adding that after months of attentive care by the rescue team, it seemed that Mico has regained some trust in humans.
The Animal Rescue Team sought the help of an animal protection group in San Francisco to arrange for Mico to receive professional psychotherapy.
“Mico will stay at an American volunteer’s home while he is undergoing therapy,” Chang said, adding that the volunteer will later find a new home for the dog.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
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Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
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