Animal protection has become a domestically hot topic in recent years. An increasing number of people started to pay attention to welfare of animals and life education topics. On top of that, there are more and more pet owners and these pets live much longer than before thanks to the advancing modern medical care. The New Taipei City Government has been promoting the concept of “adoption and no abandonment; give them a sweet home,” aiming to help pet owners to become responsible. This year (2019), we had series of dog-related events like online campus dog voting, campus dog painting and dogs of longevity. These events were organized to start life education from the very beginning and create animal-friendly campus by letting animals into schools; on one hand we want to give dogs and cat a better life and, on the other, allow teachers to contemplate the meaning of life values.

    New Taipei City Government Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office organized the events of life education from online campus dog voting, campus dog painting contest to dogs of longevity in the attempt to tell people how close it is between us and animals and convey the idea of taking care of your pets for their lives if you love them like a family. The online campus dog voting started in 2017 to collect candidates from elementary schools to universities. In 2018, the event was expanded to include dogs adopted by government agencies of all levels and make them eligible for the voting. The Office took the initiatives to promote dog training and animal protection education. Simple training was given to dogs based on their natural instincts, thus making them factory guard dogs, campus companion dogs or working dogs, thus increasing their chances to be adopted. This year (2019), the voting went a step further by allowing teaches to present the interactions between campus dogs and students on films, not only documenting the purest images of these canine friends through cameras, but also communicating the indelible love between people and animals and, therefore, enabling responsible pet owners. The campus dog events allow us to know how street dogs ended up on campus and there is no shortage of interesting stories between the dogs and schools, eye-watering stories of how dogs meet people, and the courageous stories of campus dogs that get your blood pumping. There are all kinds of dogs in these events. For example, the dog, “Cola,” of An-Xi Junior High School is as brave as it is silly looking and once fought off a water buffalo that wandered into the campus; Lulumi, an old dog lady who was more than 11 years old (when it passed away in 2018), still stood guard on campus despite the diagnosis of a malicious thyroid tumor.

    It is clear in these events that some of the campus dogs have been kept for years and some are even as old as 19 years. With the advancing veterinary science and care, our fury friends can grow much older than before, which makes taking care of old animals to the very end highly important. In the name of Double-Nine Festival, the Office has this dogs of longevity event every year based on pet registration information and the age registered after the chip implant. Dogs that won the contests are given prize money. For example, Shiheihei, a 20-year-ld dog who won the first place, is still walking around, and as active and energetic as all those young “puppies.” For the article soliciting event, pet owners tell their stories of happiness and bitterness through pens and paper. When every stroke placed on paper, it presents not only how good these owners are with their pens, but also the true affection between the owners and their canine friends.

    The Office pointed out that the campus dog voting and dogs of longevity events are organized to advocate animal protection education. Thanks to the company of these campus dogs, the concept of animal protection is now deep in school children’s minds as they are taught to take care of their pets from the very beginning, while the grown-ups learn to take care of the old pets to the very end along the process. The whole idea is to highlight the permanent love between animals and their owners, enable more responsible pet owners, spread the love across all those around us, and create a happy and friendly city for our fury friends.