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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary