“Join us and be responsible owners,” dozens of pet cat owners urged during a Cats’ Festival parade organized by the Stray Cats Protection Association (SCPA) in Taipei yesterday.
“Whether you buy it or adopt it, you should think it through before you decide to have a pet,” said a flyer distributed by the group during the event. “A cat can live up to 15 to 20 years — it may be just a passer-by in your life, but you are its whole life.”
The cat owners were eye-catching because they not only brought their pets with them, but many also dressed up as cats.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The SCPA was founded two years ago by Sara Choi, who originally came from South Korea as a student, but then decided to stay and work to protect stray cats after she completed her studies.
There are about 10,000 to 20,000 stray cats in Taipei City alone, Choi estimated.
“Our main tasks are to TNR stray cats, find adopters and sometimes help rescue stray cats,” Chiu Wen-chun (邱文君), a volunteer at the association said.
TNR refers to the process of “trap, neuter, release.”
“If a cat can survive well in a neighborhood, we’d prefer to let it stay there instead of putting it in our shelter,” Chiu said.
However, due to hostility from a community, physical handicaps or other reasons, the SCPA still shelters nearly 50 stray cats, she said.
The cats in the shelter are awaiting adopters, Chiu said.
Not everybody can adopt cats from the association, though.
To prevent the cats from being deserted again, “we first interview potential adopters, and then we would ask them to sign an agreement after the pass the interview,” Chiu said.
All cat adopters must agree to allow the SCPA to continuously track the condition of the cats they’ve adopted, she said.
Although all SCPA volunteers are happy to do all they can to help stray cats, they still hope that the issue can be eliminated from its root.
“People abandon their pet cats for different reasons — their parents don’t allow it, they broke up with their girlfriends or boyfriends, the cats were being too naughty,” Chiu said. “But you should think carefully before you decide to get a cat and once you do, you should never abandon it for any reason.”
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and