Growing old in style

 A law prohibiting public animal shelters from putting down strays came into force in Taiwan earlier this year. While widely praised by animal lovers up and down the country, animal rights groups and frontline workers condemned the government’s plans to implement the law as overly reckless.
Public shelters fear they will be overwhelmed as the number of strays coming into the shelters far outstrips the rate of adoption.
Those running shelters say that the no-kill policy has increased the spread of contagious diseases and left veterinarians overworked.
There is concern too that public shelters will choose to turn a blind eye on areas with lower stray animals to avoid overwhelming the shelters.
Some critics worry that owners may feel less guilty about abandoning their pets knowing that they won’t risk sending the animals to their deaths.
The government has belatedly tried to come up with backup plans to the well- intentioned but imprudently imposed non-kill policy, with an emphasis on the expanding shelters’ capacity and increasing manpower.
But a new animal rights organisation is looking in a different way to mitigate the crisis.
Ge Ja-ri, a successful businesswoman currently running a public relations company, founded the Noah’s Ark Pet Association three years ago.
“I’ve participated in animal rights and protection activities for more than 10 years. But I am concerned that animal rights groups have not evolved,” Ge says. 
“The overall environment for animal rights groups has not improved. How these groups operate and fundraise is the same as it was 10 years ago,” she adds, explaining that the same group of clients continue to donate to animal rights campaigns.
But with the number of similar organisations soaring in the past decade as public awareness increases and more passionate activists becoming engaged, the amount of funding shared between has fallen short.
Given her business background, publicity is Ge’s strength. She took advantage of that talent and started a groundbreaking animal rights organisation centred on the adoption of old, injured, and sick strays, instead of the more typically seen puppies.
“Members of this less-appreciated group usually die of sickness inside public shelters or will be put down,” Ge says.
Ge has personally adopted or raised several stray dogs that were middle-age or older so she fully understands the advantages of keeping an elder dog and knows who their target clients could be.
“They get tired easily, have little energy to mess around all day, and they love cuddles,” Ge says, calling such dogs “the perfect match for city dwellers.”
Ge understands that many animal lovers have been put off by the distance to pubic shelters and the difficulty in reaching them. She wanted to bring Noah’s Ark closer to the people, while also allowing them to realise that it is quite possible to raise a pet in an apartment in the middle of the city.
Unlike most animal rights organisations and shelters, which are located in rural areas where land is cheap and are spacious enough to provide room for exercise without causing too much noise in residential neighbourhoods, Noah’s Ark is located on the third floor of a business office building in central Taipei
The association has room for around six to eight strays. Currently there are five dogs and two cats awaiting adoption.
Serving as a middle station for these strays and not their permanent home, Ge said that they only take in new ones when old ones have been adopted, assuring living standards remain high.
“The organisation gets the animals ready for adoption,” Ge said, explaining how many stray dogs can be afraid of going near people after time spent wandering off the streets or in the crowded public shelters or after being recently abandoned by their owners.
Some of the dogs at the organisation cannot bark because their vocal cords were severed at kennels, Ge says.
Every couple of months, the association holds an adoption party where potential clients meet up with a room of dogs and cats, interact with them and see if there’s any spark between them.
The association also works to prevent more pets become strays by organising children’s educational camps and lessons for pet owners regarding how to take care of older animals.
“Sometimes owners abandon their pets because they really have no idea how to take care of them anymore, or they don’t know how to say goodbye,” Ge says.
The organisation works with social workers to assist these owners in learning how to cope as their pets get older.
“We’re still quite new in this field,” Ge said, “but we’re trying to pave a new way for the animal rights campaign.”
“I want to do the right thing the right way.”