The best meal of the day, tuna & egg sandwich for breakfast.
Martina had her first doughnut in her life.
Lin-Co Animal Shelter. It is located at a mountainous rural area, far away from town, so that the noises of animals will not disturb the citizens of Taipei.
A strong little doggie that had undergone many skin grafting treatments after suffering from acid splashed a few years ago.
The Vietnamese staff who takes care of the shelter. I thought she is a Taiwanese because she speaks very good chinese and she looks like chinese.
This dog is really fat. It must be a lazy dog that loves eating and never exercise.
This room was an operation theatre in the past to carry out spay and neuter surgery.
The food room. The stray animals in the shelter are fed with the best food, either Hill's or Royal Canine. They are very lucky to have Madam Liu to care for them.
Madame Liu told us her story of how she began to involve in animal welfare in Taiwan and how she changed the condition of stray animals and alleviated animal cruelty in Taipei city.
Madame Liu had been involve in animal welfare and protection programme since 40 years ago, but her involvement in saving stray dogs and cats started about 20 years ago. In the past, Taiwanese smuggled Orang Utan from Indonesia to Taiwan. Keeping Orang Utan as pet was a trend about 40 years ago. Baby Orang Utans are adorable but when they grow up to 2 to 3 years old, they'll be as tall as human and become aggressive and fierce. They cannot be kept in the cage because they can easily break the iron rod and escape. They run around the house, grab whatever they could, and mess up the place. The people were panic and couldn't keep their pets in control. Therefore Madame Liu and her friends created a Indonesian forest-like home for the Orang Utans to adapt to their original homes and learn to find their own food rather than being fed by people, before sending them back to Indonesia.Madame Liu and her friends took about 2 years to raise fund for the project of sending Orang Utans back to Indonesia by flight.
After Madame Liu's retirement, she migrated to United States for about 2 years, however racial discrimination in the states had brought her back to Taiwan. One day, when she walked out of 7-11, there were two stray dogs looking at her, as if telling her that they had been starving for several days, and hoping she would give them some food. Looking at their innocent eyes, she felt pity of them and she gave them her food.
On the next day, she went to the same 7-11 shop again, the two dogs were waiting for there at the same spot again. Since then, she started feeding them daily. The two dogs knew Madame Liu is a kind-hearted person, thus brought their doggie friends to look for Madame Liu for food. It became a problem for Madame Liu when the number of dogs kept increasing up to hundreds and some irresposible owners abandoned their dogs because they knew Madame Liu would feed them. Some kind-hearted aunties joined Madame Liu to feed the dogs.
Madame Liu knew that she couldn't let this situation continues, feeding the dogs could help the dogs but could not solve the problem , she knew she needed to do something. Hence she started to take a few stray dogs to shopping malls for adoption every week. She consulted many experts in animal welfare in Taiwan and also in the United States to find a better solution for strays. Then she thought of a better solution, which is to spay and neuter the stray dogs and cats. She introduced Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) in Taiwan. Sterilizing the stray animals could effectively curb the increasing number of of stray animals by restricting the reproduction of animals.
About 30 years ago, animal abuse was common in Taiwan. The municipal council officers treated dogs as tools or working machine but do not consider them as living things. The dogs were strangled to death, drowned in hot water, dumped at the dump site, and some were brutally abused by beating or acid splashed. Dogs had no value of life at all and were treated very inhumanely.
Madame Liu tried to stop the cruelty towards animal. She went to the dump sites to save the poor dogs and rallied to stop euthanasia and animal abuse. There was once Madame Liu knew that the authority was going to send the stray dogs up to the mountain to put them to sleep. They had no time and could not find a way to save the dogs. Madame Liu and her fellow friends had no choice but to lie on the road to block the vechicles sending the dogs up to the mountain. She is indeed a courageous and determined woman. She is the Mother of Dogs and Cats.
Many years ago, the authority in Taiwan used a wire rod with hook to capture the strays. They do not bother whether the dogs were hurt. Some dogs struggled and the wire cut their throat, and ended up losing their lives. Madame Liu learnt that there was a guy capture dogs for meat using a big net to prevent injuries to the dogs so that the dogs have higher market value. Although he used that method for inhumane purpose, but Madame Liu thought that his method was good. So she consulted the man and learn to make the net. Then she proposed the new dog capturing method to the goverment. Since then, the condition of stray dogs and animal abuse in Taipei city had greatly reduced.
Madame Liu persisted her animal welfare and protection spirit for 40 years until now. She had contributed a lot for the animals in Taiwan and also amendment of legislative laws for animal welfare, as well as setting up an animal shelter at Lin-Co, and now the shelter is the only legal shelter in Taipei. Over these years, she had sold two houses and spent all her life-time savings, approximately NTD 2 billion. She would sacrifice anything for animals, and she is happy and proud of what she is doing. She funded the animal shelter and all the activities by her own and as time goes by, she is running out of fund and really need the people to support her organization.
Madame Liu had made a drastic change to the society in Taipei city. I hardly see a stray dog in Taipei city now. The animal rescue officers have been doing a pretty good job.
A small autoclave used to sterilize the surgical tools.
Food and toys donated by people.
There were only two cats at the shelter. Madam Liu created double doors for the cat room to avoid the cats from sneaking out once the door is open. The double doors act as a double protection because cats run very fast and it is very difficult to catch them.
Night market again, but this time Mr Liu and Cindy took us to Keelung night market. We took the local train from Nangang to Keelung.
A beautiful river view. I thought the night market was in the cruise. Haha~
We had delicious grill giant octopus tentacle and squid for dinner.
Passion fruit and milk ice blended for dessert.
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