Promoting animal welfare is becoming the current international trend, which is also a subject highly concerned by the public. In the society of Taiwan, there are a great number of stray dogs and cats. According to a survey conducted by the Council of Agriculture in 1999, there were as many as 660,000 stray dogs in Taiwan. Even though the government and non-governmental organizations have strived to reduce their number to 170,000 in 2004 and 80,500 in 2009, the public still feel that their number is not reduced as what has been shown in the survey. Nowadays, there are still many problems with stray dogs and cats, such as dirty environments, noises and road accidents.
According to the Animal Protection Act, all the animal shelters in Taiwan started implementing the "zero euthanasia" since February 2017. Even though this policy is with the good intention, if the source of stray dogs and cats cannot be eradicated, not only will shelters be overloaded, but also shelter animals will face aging medical care problems. In this case, we will need tremendous medical personnel and funds. Furthermore, the Taiwanese society will once again encounter the nightmare of having a great number of stray dogs and cats on the street.
Currently, the government is controlling the number of stray dogs and cats in several aspects from the source:
1. Based on laws and regulations, the public fostering dogs and cats must conduct birth control, microchip implantation and registration to avoid abandoning domestic pets.
2. Increase the adoption rate of the public.
3. Education promotion.
The performance of actual execution for these policies isn't good enough, because 1.) the progress rate of neuter surgery needs to be faster than the reproduction speed; however, there aren't sufficient veterinarians conducting neuter surgery; 2.) low microchip implantation rate; 3.) low adoption rate. In addition, the overwhelming number of animals in public and private animal shelters makes it difficult in funds and personnel. The quality of private shelters is often poor, and it's impossible to bear high medical expenses, resulting in the lack of medical treatments on time for sick dogs and cats and the serious hindrance to basic animal freedom. The human beings might cause an epidemic crisis of zoonoses because of medical malpractice for stray dogs and cats.
The project sticks to the previous plan: continuously reduce the number of stray dogs and cats in the society, improving the quality of medical care and social environment in order to see the sustainable and healthy environment as the overall development goal. Throughout the life of dogs and cats, from their birth: 1.) Reducing the reproduction rate via neuter surgery and training of veterinarians 2.) Education promotion 3.) Course planning to recognise the plight of stray animals in Taiwan; adoption during the childhood and youth: from improving the physical condition and behaviour training of shelter dogs and cats to increase the chance of adoption; middle-aged and elderly diseases: evacuation for diagnosis and treatment, evacuated for diagnosis and treatment for complicated or severe illness; until death: animal end-of-life care education and end-of-life planning. The final part is to review: effectiveness evaluation and research analysis of the project's activities, along with enhancing exchanges and cooperation on related issues. In the future, we will lead the exchange students from Vietnam, Japan, Thailand and China to actually participate in this project, thereby increasing international exchanges and interaction.
Under the supervision and coordination of Vice President of National Chung Hsing University, Chen-Wen HUANG, the administration, teaching and practice are effectively controlled, thereby establishing a sustainable and socially responsible management mechanism in the university and combining the external support coordinated by the teacher Hsun-Lung LIN and the director Peng-Wen CHEN in the School of Veterinary Medicine, the animal burial activity held by the co-host, director Ching-Chung CHEN in the Department of Chinese Language, the product design, cultural and creative product design and the printing charged by teachers Li-Hsun PENG and Hung-Chang YU from the Creative Design Department in National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, production of the film animation charged by teacher Huang-Yao LIN from the Department of Cultural and Creative Industries in National Kaohsiung University of Applied Science and Technology, the field internship for architecture students to the animal house in Taichung led by Meng-Jing CHIANG Architecture Office, the evaluation of the project effectiveness conducted by Department of Administration in Tainan University, the activities of rural sterilization with the implementation of veterinary medical care conducted by Department of Veterinary Medicine in National Chiayi University, the implementation of questionnaire surveys, analysis, animal protection education, life education and related records performed by Department of Politics in National Chung Cheng University, and the epidemiological investigation and the education propaganda of zoonotic diseases held by Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
This project is to create a cooperative team combining veterinary medicine as well as the community empowerment activity design, visual media promotion and marketing planning. By breaking the academic barriers, the mechanism for knowledge exchange, mutual support and cross-domain cooperation can be established. Through veterinary medicine, cultural design, event design and environmental education planning with the cooperation of cross-field teams, we can try to tackle the problems of stray dogs and cats that existed in Taiwan for such a long period of time. By reducing the number of source by neuter surgery, providing medical support through effectiveness surveys, and creating a platform to understand stray animals and respecting life in local communities, we hope that people from all walks of life in Taiwan, can stick together to make Taiwan a completely animal-friendly country in the future.