Animal rescue volunteers save latest gin trap victim

Volunteers from Animal Rescue Team Taiwan spent over five hours and drove some 200 kilometers to save the black dog, which was discovered Saturday by a woman surnamed Hsu near a parking lot in Liukuei Township's Chunghsing Village.

Veterinarian Ku Feng-hao said the dog's front leg had been injured for about month. He spent about two hours performing surgery on the dog to amputate its damaged limb to avoid further infection and loss of blood.

“It is really heartbreaking to think of the suffering that this dog must have gone through for so long,” said Antony Ni, a volunteer of the animal protection organization. “We will do everything in our power to help this poor dog and make sure she finds a new home.”

“While the sight of this dog's leg might be shocking to some, it is by no means a rare case to find in Taiwan,” noted Ni. Cases like this one can be most often found in villages, where people place the gin traps to keep animals away from their fruit orchards and flowerbeds, observed Joseph Nee, leader of the animal rescue team. “Unfortunate stray cats and dogs are often the innocent victims of such cruel devices,” he continued.

“Most trapped animals can only survive after having their damaged limb amputated; others even less fortunate are trapped by the abdomen, which causes their innards to be exposed,” lamented Nee.

“These traps are very inexpensive at about NT$40 and can be purchased at any hardware store,” said Nee. “It's almost as if the government condoned and even encouraged animal abuse!”

“Not only that, but what's ironic is that these products display labels with claims such as 'superior product of Taiwan' and 'customer satisfaction award'!” said the leader and founder of the animal protection group. “In other countries, gin traps have long been considered devices for animal abuse.”

Nee said the government should implement regulations against the production and sale of gin traps in Taiwan and further urged the public to stop purchasing such devices that injure animals in such a cruel fashion.

In its 13 years of operation, Animal Rescue Team Taiwan has saved over 4,000 stray dogs and cats from the streets and placed over 750 canines in new homes in the United States as part of the organization's cross-ocean adoption program. More information is available on the rescue team's Web site: www.savedogs.org.

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