Chinese Mob Rescues Dogs

January 20, 2001 Taipei, Taiwan

Rumors of an impending Chinese New Year Dog Massacre at the Taipei Municipal Animal Shelter prompted a small mob of animal lovers to descend on the facility Saturday, adopting dozens of shelter pooches.

Rumors had been circulating that the shelter planned to kill all unclaimed dogs before the Chinese holiday, January 21 through 28.  City counselor Huang Shan-Shan went so far as to hold a press conference on Wednesday, condemning the intent and encouraging people to visit the shelter and sign up for adoption.  Director of the Taipei Municipal Animal Shelter, Daniel Lin, has since dismissed the rumors.

"I'd like to make one thing clear here. We're not going to kill all the dogs before the New Year holidays. We encourage the public to come and adopt the dogs, and we'll extend our office hours until 5pm [tomorrow]," he said.

The Taipei Municipal Animal Shelter has recently been the subject of public interest, due to its excessive practice of euthanizing dogs and rising budget for putting dogs to sleep (refer to November 2000 article in Taiwan Headlines).

The shelter has a policy that only two dogs may be adopted at a time, however, several rescuers returned repeatedly, adopting as many as they could accommodate.  Rescuer Tu Ning-tzu selected a black and white mutt she nicknamed "Mary Jane" to take home to Mucha, Wenshan District, where she cares for close to 200 other dogs.  Tu is a volunteer for the ROC Stray Dogs Salvation Guild.

First Lieutenant Chen Szu-ming came to recruit about 10 dogs for duty at the missile base in Taoyuan County.

The shelter currently has about 72 dogs remaining from as much as 380 strays.  The public is welcome to visit the shelter, located at 42, Alley 328, Ankang Rd, Neihu. Tel 02-2791-1817.

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