Animal activists yesterday called on the Ministry of Justice to help push the cell dog program — in which inmates are taught to train stray dogs so that the dogs can be prepared for adoption — saying that the program has proven successful abroad and significantly lowers re-offending rates.
“In the cell dog program, inmates are taught to be professional dog trainers and teach stray dogs basic obedience,” Taiwan Cell Dogs Program founder Cathy Tai (戴昌儀) said.
Not only do the stray dogs get a second chance at life, since with the training they have a better chance of being adopted instead of being put down, Tai said, “Inmates in turn have love and compassion reintroduced into their lives, because, as most stray dogs have been abandoned or mistreated, the inmates have to exert extra patience and love to reach out to the dogs.”
PHOTO: CNA
Tai, a music teacher at Taipei’s Jinou Girls High school, said that she first learned about cell dogs three years ago from a TV program on Animal Planet, which featured 11 US prisons running the program.
“The cell dog program was invented by Sister Pauline Queens in 1981 and has been running in US prisons for more than two decades. Statistics show that they reduce recidivism by 60 percent,” Tai said.
In the cells, inmates involved in the program also demonstrate better behavior and less violence than those who aren’t, she said.
The program is now helping rehabilitate inmates in all 50 states of the US, Italy, the UK, Japan, Korea and many other countries, she said, adding. “In the US, some of the dogs have even been trained to be guide dogs.”
In Taiwan, volunteer veterinarians from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology began treating stray dogs three years ago. They then sent the dogs to Hsinchu City Jail for inmates to train, Tai said.
A total of 18 dogs have been adopted so far, Tai said, and hundreds of people are now on the prison’s waiting list for dogs.
“This is a social program that benefits society as a whole. In addition to the benefits to the strays and inmates, people can reap the benefits of improved public safety,” she said.
However, Tai said that currently Hsinchu is the only jail out of the nation’s 23 jails to have adopted the program, adding that it faces obstacles because “most prison wardens feel that it is extra work for them.”
As such, Tai called on the Ministry of Justice to back the program by making it eligible for part of the prison wardens’ annual job performance review, adding that it could also be a part of inmates’ parole evaluations.
“Meanwhile, my group of volunteers will continue to fundraise for the cause so that this program can carry on long-term,” she said.
To learn more about cell dogs, visit the program’s bilingual Web site at www.celldog.tw.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The