MeiMeiRyo wants to dance :): Heaven? Or Hell? --- 賈鴻秋's private dogs shelter. (Final edition)

2010/3/9 by Jocelyn Yu

Hundreds of stray dogs kept in an awful environment where the floor is covered with excrement, drinking muddy dirty water and eating feeding that has already become moldy.

This is not something happened in a puppy mill but in "Taipei County Loving Life Association," a benevolent private dogs shelter running by lady 賈鴻秋.

賈鴻秋, a teacher and a volunteer looking after strays dogs, who was once famous for kneeling down in front of Foxconn Electronics Inc. , begging Foxconn’s President Terry Gou to help save Taiwan's stray dogs. Although Terry Gou agreed to donate five million dollars, lady 賈鴻秋, in the end, refused this donation because she couldn't agree with Terry Gou's condition that she had to, by certain percentage, euthanize stray dogs. Without the donation, she ran the association with helps from only few volunteers, and the association was almost crushed down by the huge financial crisis.

2010, February 17, just when everybody was enjoying the happy atmosphere of Chinese New Year, lady 賈鴻秋 was found passed out in a temple stairway. After four days in the hospital, doctor certified her death in 2010, February 21. This news indeed shocked many dog-lovers in Taiwan. But after her death, how to deal with those stray dogs in her association has now become a bigger problem.

If it wasn't for her death, people wouldn't discover that her dog’s shelter was actually in such an awful condition that it had already reached the level of animal abuse.

Because 賈鴻秋 didn't have budget to neuter these dogs, they kept propagating in this small shelter. More dogs mean more disease and less space and food. Over a long period of time living in such a dirty and foul environment, some dogs had already died when other associations arrived. Others were rather very ill or weak.

After seeing the miserable situation of these dogs, people started to question: Is this the kind of life those dogs really want? A private animal shelter takes in animals without considering one's ability and without limitation! Is it really good for animals?

賈鴻秋's death accidentally revealed the truth of some private dogs shelters and made more people think about the true meaning of animal welfare. There are still a lot to discuss relating to animal welfare, but now let's just hope this kind of miserable story won't ever happen in private animal shelters again.