A private organization yesterday teamed up with the Taipei City Government to launch a Web site to help reunite pet owners with lost pets and to provide a venue for prospective pet owners to adopt stray animals.
The Help-Save-A-Pet Fund Taiwan (流浪動物之家基金會) yesterday launched its Web site which includes, among other things, information on stray animals temporarily housed at the city's Taipei Municipal Institute for Animal Health (台北市動物檢驗所) and its commissioned veterinary hospitals.
The Web site, which is updated every day, posts information on each animal for a period of seven days. If, after that period, no one shows interest in adopting the animal, it will be put to sleep.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Taipei Deputy Mayor Bai Hsiu-hsiung (
"Modern technology has made locating lost pets more convenient. People no longer need to place a lost-and-found ad in the newspapers, nor make the effort to post flyers around their neighborhood to locate their lost pets," Bai said.
Lily Wang (
"Dogs are living creatures just like you and me. If you treat them well, they'll repay your kindness more than you can imagine."
Wang, who started to care for stray dogs 13 years ago, formed the foundation in 1994. It keeps about 500 stray dogs on its approximately 3,300m2 lot in Taipei County's Kungliao (
Holding his dog in his hands, Jeff Locker, an entertainer and the spokesperson for the activity, said the problem of the city's stray dogs is due to people's negligence.
"[The problem] lies in the people," he said. "Before you decide to keep a pet, you must realize that it's a lifetime commitment. You just can't abandon a pet because it's no longer cute."
The city currently has an estimated 18,000 stray dogs.
Since the Animal Protection Law (
Statistics show that Taipei's dog adoption rate was the highest in the nation -- up from 16 percent in 1998 to 35 percent in 1999. The 1999 neutering rate for domestic dogs also ranked the highest in the country -- reaching 30 percent.
The institute also says the number of stray dogs put to sleep is the fifth-lowest among the nation's 23 counties and cities -- about 800 per month or 10,000 per year.
For more information, visit the foundation's Web site at http://www.hsapf.org.tw
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS