Taiwan Animal Rescue Center Has Big Plans

ZHANG:
And now a story on how one animal shelter is giving animals smuggled into Taiwan a new lease on life. We travel to the Pingtung Rescue Center for the story.

STORY:
Captive male orangutans peer out from their cages, while gibbons scream, and tortoises plod after visitors.

But the people in charge say these animals just want their two-legged, invitation-only visitors to know the shocking stories of how they ended up at the southern Taiwan facility: a rescue center for smuggled animals doubling as an educational zoo.

Most animals were originally smuggled to Taiwan from Southeast Asia, and a few were taken illegally from forests on the island. They later became pets for Taiwan families who had no idea the pin-up baby fur balls would grow up to be unmanageable adults.

The two-hectare Pingtung Rescue Center allows about nine thousand visitors a year to see eye-to eye-with more than eight hundred abandoned animals representing over a hundred species.

[Kurtis Pei, Rescue Center Director]:
"We found that to passively take in wild animals is not enough to solve the problem of illegal trading, if we wish to solve the problem from the root, then we need to educate the public. We need to let more people to understand the negative consequences of animal purchase, therefore we increased public education, and openly invite them to come in and see what we are doing.

Pei is also in the process of building homes for these animals on an island in Vietnam, due to open next year.

[Kurtis Pei, Rescue Center Director]:
"In the process of transferring these animals from Taiwan to Vietnam, we really pay attention to local residents, especially the aboriginals, and how the local government operates. We don't want South-eastern Asian countries to think that we only take care of animals but not people, and in fact, without paying attention to people, it is hard to protect animals.

Next year, the rescue center will open a public visitor area to attract as many as 80-thousand more people annually.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Ntd
• NTDTV
• News
• Taiwan
• Animal
• Rescue
• smuggled
• Pingtung
• orangutans
• tortoises
• gibbons
• Asia
• illegally
• abandoned

[ahonestwoman]

Awesome!! I am glad that this place exist...