The Hualien County Government on Saturday said it would try to relocate 50 dogs that were being cared for by a private shelter in the county, after the shelter’s owner passed away.
Chu Su-mei (朱素梅), 68, sometimes cared for up to 100 stray dogs at a time, which she fed using donations collected through her shelter’s Facebook page, Aunty Chu’s Dog Shelter in Hualien Needs Our Help (花蓮朱阿姨狗園需要你我的幫忙).
Hualien Department of Agriculture Director Chen Shu-wen (陳淑雯) said the county would first communicate with Chu’s family to see if they would continue to care for the dogs, the Central News Agency reported on Saturday.
Chu’s passing is very sad, not just because of the loss of this selfless woman, but also for how her shelter demonstrates the seriousness of Taiwan’s problem with stray animals. Council of Agriculture statistics from August last year put the number of stray dogs at just more than 155,000, an increase of 6.19 percent from 2018. Animal rights groups have said the actual number of strays in Taiwan could be double what official statistics show.
Taipei City Councilor Yang Ching-yu (楊靜宇), who is a practicing veterinarian, said in December last year that animal shelters were overcrowded, with five to seven dogs in each pen at the city’s Tanmei shelter. There was also an increasing number of strays dying each year in shelters, despite a euthanasia ban put into effect in 2017, he said.
A number of factors contribute to Taiwan’s high number of strays, most significantly pet abandonment and low rates of microchipping and sterilization. Abandonment has become even more prevalent since the euthanasia ban went into effect, as people feel less guilty about ditching their pets, Animal Protection Association of the Republic of China secretary-general Huang Ching-jung (黃慶榮) told Taiwan News in September last year.
People might abandon dogs when they get difficult to care for in old age, or simply because they are not the cute puppies they once were. Sometimes dogs used for security on job sites are abandoned when sites are shut down or move. Other times, pet owners do not want to take their animal when moving to a smaller or far-away place. Whatever the reason, clearly it is too easy for people to adopt pets and later discard them.
The issue must be tackled. Such a high number of stray cats and dogs can become a health concern, as strays can carry rabies or other diseases, damage property or attack people who come near them.
Animal protection officials said they would continue trapping and neutering stray dogs. The policy should be complemented with better enforcement of laws that aim to prevent pet abandonment. Pet stores and private breeders should also be prohibited from breeding and selling dogs until the number of strays comes under control. A tax on purchased animals could be considered to encourage adoption of strays.
Taipei and other localities have encouraged schools and other public institutions to adopt strays. This is a good way to help boost adoption and to give strays a more fulfilling life than they would have in a shelter. However, adoption will ultimately be useful only if shelters are not forced to take in an ever-increasing number of dogs from the street and from pet owners.
Reducing the number of strays requires a multi-tiered approach, involving the reduction of the number of puppies being born through a large-scale sterilization campaign, and tight regulations on shops and private breeders. Tackling strays means changing the mentality around pet ownership. People must be taught to view their pets as valued and loved family members, not consumer items.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS